Love Is Blind star Tyler Francis doesn’t believe he is a father figure to his biological children.
“It’s a very sticky situation because I don’t feel like a father and I’ve told this to Bri herself,” Tyler, 34, said during the Wednesday, November 20, episode of the “Dear Future Wifey” podcast, referring to his friend he donated sperm to years ago. “What I feel like is a glorified babysitter that you need money from.”
He added, “These kids have been raised, the past four or five years, with another woman. She’s engaged, so they have been raised in a two-woman household, which I initially was signing up for. So, I had to be OK with that if I did step back — and it’s not an easy situation to step out of, like, I do feel for the kids.”
Tyler had contributed genetic material to help his “extremely close” friend, who at the time was married to a woman, have a baby when he was 27 years old. After Tyler’s friend went through a divorce, he stepped in to help raise the three kids, an older child and a pair of twins. The Netflix star didn’t want the children to grow up in a single-parent household like he did, but eventually took a step back before going on Love Is Blind.
“I initially stepped out to play that role as a father,” Tyler explained on Wednesday. “Before the twins were born, I had already agreed to step in and I would be a part of it. Another misconception is that I named those kids … [Bri and her then-girlfriend] gave one of the twins my middle name, but that was [their] decision.”
Tyler found love with Ashley Adionser inside the Love Is Blind pods when season 7 came to Washington, D.C. He only informed Ashley, 32, of the kids’ existence after they got engaged and met in person.
While Ashley was initially caught off-guard by Tyler’s bombshell revelation, she stayed in their relationship and they got married in November 2023. (The Love Is Blind finale aired one year later.)
Speaking on the “Dear Future Wifey” podcast, Tyler also gushed about his relationship with Ashley.
“I lucked out,” he said. “She’s not someone I usually dated, but her personality is 10 times better than anyone I ever dated — her soul, the way she brings God out of me, all the things. … It wasn’t shown, but I said I didn’t care what she looked like; I was going to be with her. That’s how deep we connected.”
Both Tyler and Ashley want to have their own children one day.
“I tell Ashley, when I have a kid, I want to be there,” Tyler added. “I want to do the stomach pictures and I want to be the one [in the hospital] before the kid’s even born, right? I wasn’t there for any of that.”
