“I will say she wrote me on Instagram and apologized to me and Tyler,” Ashley, 32, said on the Wednesday, November 6, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast. “[She] said she’s praying for us and she never meant for it to go this way. She won’t say too much on this forum.”
Ashley added, “She also wrote me and said it was OK if I never wanted to respond and she knows my world is crazy right now and she never intentionally meant to cause me any pain.”
Ashley had been surprised by the revelation but still “welcomed this” because of her love for Tyler, 34.
“If we never talk to [the woman] or the kids again, it’s still a thing,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind having a sit-down with [her]. I want to know what the motive is here, like, even his mom. When I talked to her, she was like, ‘It is exactly what he’s saying,’ and it used to be so uncomfortable for [my mother-in-law].”
Tyler previously donated a sample of his sperm to help his former military colleague and her then-wife have children. After the pair welcomed a son and then a pair of twins, the couple divorced. Tyler’s friend, whose name has not been publicly shared, then asked Tyler to step in as a father figure. According to Ashley during her “Viall Files” appearance, Tyler only had an “uncle” role to the kids and took a step back before going on Love Is Blind because of a lack of “connection.”
Ashley and Tyler got engaged sight unseen in the Love Is Blind season 7 pods, which was filmed in fall 2023 and aired on Netflix last month. After the couple started their post-pod relationship, Tyler told Ashley the truth about his “sperm donor babies” off-camera, which they then recapped for the show.
“My heart sank to the ground,” Ashley recalled of the first time Tyler told her the truth. “He was afraid to tell me because he didn’t want to lose me. I was like, ‘That’s robbery. You robbed me of my choice.’ … I was caught off-guard.”
After Ashley got detailed answers about Tyler’s past and involvement in the children’s lives, she wasn’t willing to let that deter their wedding plans.
“When I said, ‘I do,’ I said I do to all of it,” she told podcast host Nick Viall, noting she would “take [Tyler’s] lead” if the kids ever decided to reach out once they’re older.
As Love Is Blind started airing, the children’s grandmother repeatedly claimed via social media that Tyler was actually very involved in their lives.
“Honestly, the hardest part was seeing Tyler struggle during a time that should have been just about our love story,” Ashley said. “I think once [his friend] apologized, she kind of felt bad. ‘Getting beat up on social media is never fun,’ I told her.”
The woman apparently only apologized to Ashley and hasn’t been in contact with Tyler. He allegedly, according to Ashley, tried to message her via his dog’s Instagram page but didn’t get any response.
Ashley and Tyler have since repaired his breach of her trust.
“It wasn’t broken, but it was tainted,” she added. “[We worked through it] just by continuing the conversation. I will say that the pods and the experiment taught us a lot. I’ve never had this great of communication in my entire existence. … There’s no rulebook [for trust], I just had to take a leap of faith and say, ‘OK, I see this man and I know him.’”
Love Is Blind season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix.
