Html Tags being changed when starting to type

[drewmah]

I have a htmlEditor that gets loaded with default content from the database.

something like this

<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>0409344779</strong></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>4060</strong></span></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Works Completed at site as at 03/02/2023:</strong></span></p><ul><li>&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;</li></ul>

when I start typing in the field it was replaced with

<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><b><u>0409344779</u></b></p><p><b><u><br></u></b></p><p><b><u>4060</u></b></p><p><b><u><br></u></b></p><p><b><u>&nbsp;</u></b></p><p><b><u><br></u></b></p><p><b><u>Works Completed at site as at 03/02/2023:</u></b></p><p><b><u><br></u></b></p><p><b><u>&nbsp;</u></b></p><p><b><u>&nbsp;</u></b></p><p><b><u><br></u></b></p><ul><li></li></ul>

This is causing many extra paragraph tags being added. Is there a way to fix this?