“Love Is Blind” Creator Says 'We Aren't the Police' After Receiving Fan Backlash Over Vetting Process

This season, the show's diligence over several social media controversies, including Tyler Francis' paternity bombshell, came under scrutiny by fans

Warning: this post contains spoilers from the Love Is Blind season 7 reunion.

• Love Is Blind creator Chris Coelen gave insight into the Netflix show's background checks and addressed several social media controversies from season 7

• Coelen addressed Tyler Francis keeping his three biological children a secret, and explained that being a parent doesn't keep participants from joining the show

• The producer responded to Hannah Jiles' claim Nick Dorka joined the show with the intention of being famous

• Coelen also explained why Tim Godbee and Alex Byrd and Leo Braudy and Brittany Wisniewski's stories weren't completely filmed on the show

Love Is Blind creator, Chris Coelen, is setting the record straight on the vetting process they run for all participants.

Ahead of the season 7 reunion, which aired on Oct. 30, Coelen opened up about the extensive background checks the Netflix reality show's production uses to look into any hopeful single who wishes to enter the pods. This season, the show's diligence was questioned due to several social media controversies.

As fans may recall, Tyler Francis told now-wife Ashley Adionser that he was a sperm donor for a close friend and her wife, and had three biological children as a result. At the time, Tyler insisted he did not have much of a relationship with the children and they didn't even know what he looked like.

However, it was later leaked on social media that Tyler had more of a relationship than he was letting on to. Photos of him and the kids spending Christmas morning in matching pajamas circulated on the internet, along with allegations that he owed money in child support and abandoned his children to be on the show.

Related: Love Is Blind: The Biggest Bombshells from the Season 7 Reunion

In addition to Tyler and Ashley's drama, Nick Dorka came under fire when Hannah Jiles accused him of joining the show with the intention of becoming "the most famous person ever on Love Is Blind."

"We have a very rigid vetting process," Coelen told The Hollywood Reporter. "We have background checks and psychological evaluations. Everyone in the world has a story and we aren’t the police. We don’t regulate or monitor their conversations whether they’re being filmed or not, by the way. We’re not dictating to them what they should talk about, what they shouldn’t talk about."

The television producer added that participants having children "doesn't preclude them from participating in the process." He claimed the stars can have "a bad relationship with their mother," be "in debt" or have certain sexual experiences that shouldn't keep them off the show.

"Everyone has stuff. Everyone’s lived life, and our job is not to make sure that everyone talks about everything," he explained. "Our job is to provide them a forum that they use how they wish to see if they can connect with someone and fall in love and, hopefully in the process because it contributes to them being in love, be very open and transparent with each other, even through some topics that can be very difficult."

Related: Love Is Blind Season 7 Couples: Who Got Married and Who Said 'I Don't'

Coelen continued, "It’s not our obligation to report to everyone everything that you might find interesting. That’s not really our place, because our job is to document that."

When it comes to Nick's intentions, the producer admitted that "you can never know what really is going on in someone’s heart," adding that, "only the person living it really knows that."

"I also think just because you’re interested in participating in Love is Blind or being on TV, that doesn’t mean that you don’t also want love," he pointed out. "The two things can coexist very peacefully."

Though production tries their best to discern "whether or not someone’s primary motivation" is falling in love, Coelen acknowledged that "sometimes we're wrong."

"If, in the instance that they find someone they fall in love with, are they truly interested in being married?" he asked rhetorically. "That’s the big if regardless of any other factors. And I think we do a pretty good job of vetting for that, and that’s something I care a lot about."

Coelen also addressed fans' frustration with parts of Tim Godbee and Alexandra Byrd's story not being filmed, including two big moments that led to their demise.

Related: Love Is Blind: The Biggest Bombshells from the Season 7 Reunion

"Listen, if we were filming, it would’ve been on the show. We’re super transparent," he explained. "The philosophy we have on Love Is Blind is whatever happens, we want to do our best to be able to explain what actually happened. That’s what we try to do and sometimes that can be frustrating for people."

There are times when production won't be filming, and Coelen noted that some couples choose to keep certain things off camera, as in the case of Alex and Tim. Coelen also pointed out that Alex publicly revealed that they made a decision to keep some moments private.

"So we can’t control that," he continued. "And if that’s something that they’re going to do, then that’s something they’re going to do, but we certainly want to get them to then talk about it.

The producer also addressed why cameras didn't follow Brittany Wisniewski and Leo Braudy after their engagement. A few weeks after their awkward reveal, the couple broke off their engagement, following a trip to Miami, which led viewers begging for the lost footage.

Coelen explained that many of the stories they present on the show aren't "actually known" until filming is over. With that in mind, production chooses to follow couples who they feel have a "shot to get to the altar and say 'I do.'"

"In the case of Leo and Brittany, we had seven couples who had gotten engaged. We generally have the budget to follow five, sometimes we will stretch to six," he said. "And we just felt like they were the ones who were probably the least likely [to marry] and, of course, that turned out to be true."

"I wouldn’t have thought that we would’ve ever actually told Leo and Brittany’s story on the show at all," he continued, explaining that the only reason they did was because they chose to follow Hannah and Nick.

In the pods, Leo was one of Hannah's potential matches and Coelen said production couldn't tell her story without telling Leo's and ergo Brittany's.

"You have to tell Leo’s story to really get a full picture of what Hannah was going through," Coelen explained. "And you can’t really tell Leo’s story without telling Brittany’s story. So we decided that we would tell all of those stories and then just own the fact that we didn’t follow them. That’s the decision we made."

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