‘Love Is Blind’ season 7’s Ashley breaks silence on divorce from Tyler: ‘It was so dark’

Love Is Blind star Ashley Adionser is finally speaking out about her divorce from Tyler Francis.

The season 7 couple got married in the finale of the Netflix show, despite Ashley learning the bombshell that Tyler had fathered children but didn’t disclose that to her in the pods. They announced their split in January, three months after the finale aired, and Ashley broke her silence about what went wrong in Wednesday’s episode of the What’s the Reality podcast, revealing that it had everything to do with the paternity scandal.

“I was looking at this man like who are you?” Ashley said to host Amber Desiree “AD” Smith, who was also a former Love Is Blind cast member. “It was so dark, it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my actual life.”

Ashley explained that learning about Tyler’s secret children after they met and got engaged in the pods was a total shock to her. “As you know, anything that you say in the pods, and anything that you say while filming, is law,” she said. “It is vital that you stick to it… I even go back and forth in my head if he ever loved me. They don’t think the love is real from Love Is Blind, but it is! It was for me!”

Despite learning Tyler’s secret before the wedding, Ashley said she was still committed to making their relationship work. That’s why she stood by him and married him in the finale. “This was someone I made vows with,” she said. “My faith is important to me, we said this before God. I had to see it through. I never wanted to get divorced.”

But Ashley then broke down in tears as she said, “Tyler has taken enough from me, he cannot take that as well.”

Midway through season 7, Ashley learned that Tyler had three kids that he didn’t tell her about in the pods. They still continued to date on the show, and talked it out and decided to just take things a day at a time and “give it a try.” He told her that his close friend wanted to have children with her wife but they couldn’t afford a sperm donor, so he “helped” them have children. He added that he doesn’t “think” the kids even know what he looks like. Ashley later decided that she wants Tyler in her life “no matter what,” so they moved past the issue. “We’re getting married,” she told him. She wasn’t lying, because they both said “I do” at the altar.

However, more details came out after the finale was filmed. Bri Thomas, the mother of his children, released multiple videos on her Instagram Stories claiming that Tyler still owed child support and was an absentee father who had previously spent holidays with their children.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

When the season 7 reunion aired a year later, in October 2024, Tyler clarified the situation. “I did help a friend and her wife start a family, but her wife ended up leaving her and left her high and dry,” he said. “So I stepped in, voluntarily stepped in and helped, so there are pictures of me around. I’ve spent holidays with all my friends, all their kids, and I played a part that became very shaky with a friend, and there’s no rule books to this… But I do want to let people know, Ashley knows all this. This is news to the world now, but this has never been news to us.”

In November, Ashley revealed on The Viall Files podcast that she had been in contact with the woman who posted the images of Francis and made accusations against him. “I will say she wrote me on Instagram and apologized to me and Tyler,” she said, adding that the mother “said she’s praying for us and she never meant for it to go this way… She knows my world is crazy right now, and she never intentionally meant to cause me any pain.”

Two months later, in January, Ashley announced her split from Tyler. “After much reflection, I want to share that Tyler and I have been separated for several weeks and have now made the difficult decision to end our marriage,” she said. “While I had hoped for mutual understanding and transparency in our relationship, it has become clear that our paths are no longer aligned, making it impossible for me to continue in this marriage.”