TLC’s new show Polyfamily will explore the complexities of a closed polyamorous quad relationship.
Polyfamily, which will be released on Tuesday, April 29, follows two married couples, Alysia and Tyler, Sean and Taya, who have chosen to all live together as a closed quad. Although they are married, Tyler is also dating Sean’s wife, Taya, while Sean is dating Tyler’s wife, Alysia.
“We’re only dating within ourselves and married within ourselves,” Sean explained in Us Weekly’s exclusive clip of the trailer. “We don’t have any outside partners.”
Alysia noted that they never “set out to live their lives like this,” but it ended up working out.
“We realized we could love more than one person and make our own rules as to what we want our family to look like,” she shared.
Prior to becoming a combined unit, Alysia and Tyler were already parents to a son and daughter. However, after coming together with Sean and Taya, the four adults have welcomed two more sons with one more baby on the way.
“Since the guys switch rooms every night, we don’t know who the fathers of the younger boys are,” Taya shared in the trailer, with Tyler noting that they don’t want to find out who the biological fathers are because it could “cause a lot of hurt.”
Keep scrolling to learn more about each couple:
Sean and Taya
Sean and Taya were married for six years before coming into the quad.
Taya admitted that they faced “pushback” from their family and friends after telling them about their polyamorous relationship with Tyler and Alysia.
“It is true that it wasn’t always easy — it took me a while to admit I had feelings for someone else — and we definitely do get jealous sometimes,” she told Today in January 2023. “But now it’s so natural to us all and I feel so grateful to have multiple partners to raise children with. Why wouldn’t you want more love and support and more hands around? It’s a messy, hectic, crazy, wonderful life and I can’t think of anything else we could ever want.”
Tyler and Alysia
After 11 years together, Tyler and Alysia chose to enter into a closed quad with Sean and Taya. The couple were already parents with a son and a daughter prior to meeting the other pair.
“Our kids already knew we were dating Sean and Taya,” Tyler told Today in a January 2023 interview. “We told them, ‘You know, Mom has a boyfriend and Dad had a girlfriend and we’re going to move in together, and we’re all going to be a big family and they’re going to help parent you, so we’re going to need you to treat them like you treat us — like parents.”
Although she is happy with her life, Alysia does admit she sometimes gets “jealous” over Taya and Tyler’s romance because “it almost looks like they’re more in love than him and I.”
Sean and Alysia
Alysia and Sean started dating each other in the quad.
“We didn’t even know what polyamory was, until we started getting feelings for each other,” Alysia admitted to Today in January 2023.
Taya and Tyler
Aside from being married to their own respective partners, Taya and Tyler have their own relationship together.
Watch Polyfamily on TLC on Tuesday, April 29 at 10 p.m. ET.