Love Is Blind’s Tyler Francis Says He Wants His Biological Kids to ‘Have Their Family and Leave Me Alone’

Tyler Francis is setting the record straight.

In an interview with Laterras R. Whitfield on the Dear Future Wifey podcast, Tyler explained the status of his relationship with his biological children after it was revealed on the past season of Love Is Blind that he was not involved in their lives.

Tyler, 34, has maintained that he was a “sperm donor” and not a father figure, but speculation began after photos emerged of him with the kids celebrating the holidays together. The mother of his children, Bri Thomas, later came forward in a series of videos on her Instagram Stories, alleging that Tyler still owed child support and was an absentee father after going on the Netflix show.

“I wasn’t active so it’s hard for people to say, ‘He was active, there are pictures, there are videos,’” he shared. “It’s very few and far in between. If I create a montage of all the things that I’ve done in my life playing basketball, I can make it look like I’m a professional basketball player, absolutely, but to take these pictures over the past five, six years, you can make it look like I’m very active, and they’re doing that.”

Tyler said that after his first child was born, he took on a fatherly role because his friend Bri, who was in a lesbian relationship, broke up with her fiancée and wanted their son to have a dad.

She and Tyler then conceived twin girls, but when Bri got back into the relationship with her ex-fiancée, Tyler alleged she wanted him to take a step back. (PEOPLE has reached out to Bri for comment.)

“I want the kids to have two parents, not two parents and a tiptoe in-and-out dad that comes around just so you can say he goes to ‘Dads and donuts,’” he explained. “That’s not what I want to do. I want to be a very active father in my kids’ lives at all times, [but] don’t say you want a relationship and raise these kids with a woman until you do it and y’all get in a fight and it’s like, ‘Well, I know my friend will come back.’ That’s not it.”

Since being on the show, Tyler said Bri’s claims that he is an absent father are false because he never intended to be a father. Although at times he took on various roles in the kids’ lives, he said he hopes to have a clean slate as he builds the foundation of his marriage to Ashley Adionser.

“I want them to have their family and leave me alone,” he told Whitfield. “That’s honestly what I want because at this point, even if I put it in the back of my mind that I could have a relationship with them, I wouldn’t want to be attached to that family. Not the kids, per se, because again, innocent kids, beautiful kids. I’m just saying, but they come with everyone else.”

“I don’t feel like a father, what I feel like is a glorified babysitter that you need money from,” he later added.

As for criticism that he didn’t tell Ashley until late into their engagement, Tyler said he regrets not revealing the information in the Love Is Blind pods. However, in the scene where he claimed the kids didn’t know what he looked like was not their actual discussion, as he disclosed in the reunion.

“I do just wish I told Ashley upfront and let her make that decision,” he admitted. “She’s happy. I’m not holding her down. I don’t have her handcuffed. She’s a very strong, intelligent woman who makes great decisions her entire life.”

“That [on-camera answer] was me trying to avoid,” he continued. “And then as I said it to avoid, I realized we were filming, so that night, as soon as cameras stopped, I was like ‘Okay.’ We had conversations off camera.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Love Is Blind season 7 is now streaming in full on Netflix.