A husband who chose to take his wife’s surname has been trolled with nasty death threats by complete strangers from across the world.
Grant Phillips has copped a torrent of vile social media abuse after swapping his maiden name of Davis for his life partner Jade’s family name shortly after they married in November.
‘What sort of a man takes his wife’s name?’ one man said on Facebook.
Grant Phillips, pictured with his wife, has bucked tradition by taking his wife Jade’s surname after they were married
The 30-year-old newlywed has received vile death wishes from right across the world
‘I hope you and your w**** of a wife die in a car crash so that your genes don’t continue.’
The 30-year-old Sydney man said he felt sorry for the trolls who messaged him on Facebook, saying they were all conservative, rural men from Australia and as far afield as the U.S., United Kingdom, Brazil and New Zealand.
‘I just feel sad for these people that they need to take the time out of their daily lives to track me down or to leave nasty comments on social media,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
‘The thing I have an issue with is that people think they have a right to tell me to go kill myself or to tell me to go die in car accident or wish upon me that my wife has several miscarriages.
Grant Phillips, pictured centre with his wife Jade, feels sorry for social media trolls who have taken time to wish ill on him
‘The American men, they were the most threatening but then the Australian men were just kind of, almost childish – comments like, “Do you wear a tampon?”.
‘Every single hate mail I got was from a male but the ironic thing was the men would proudly display pictures of them with their daughters on the same social media pages they used to condemn me.’
The newly-married man said they mutually decided he would buck tradition and take her surname about a year before they married in November.
However he didn’t change his name by deed poll until December when he needed a new passport.
The abuse started after he announced his decision on Facebook.
Grant, who has two brothers and plenty of male cousins, said his wife, 28, had no brothers to continue the family name.
‘No political reason at all, mate,’ he said.
Grant Phillps said he chose to forgo his maiden name of Davis because his wife was last in line
Grant Phillips, pictured with his wife Jade, already has two brothers to carry on his family name
‘She’s the last line in her family. She has no male cousins, no one to carry on the name and it kind of made sense.
‘There’s nothing tying me to having to force her to take my name.
‘We want our kids to be able to have the same names as us.’
Grant said his family, who initially supported his decision to take his wife’s surname, found the social media abuse to be comical, but some comments were of very bad taste.
‘One person said to me, “This guy must have been raped by his father which is why he changed his surname”,’ he said.
Grant Phillips, pictured with wife Jade, said many of the online trolls appeared to be leading double lives online
‘My father’s on social media – obviously that’s so ridiculous and not true at all.
‘There was one comment that was pretty bad about myself and women in general and I looked at the guy’s Facebook page and I screen shot his message and actually sent it to his wife and his wife was just disgusted.
‘Clearly, this guy was just living a double life online trolling people but playing happy families at home.’
Grant met his wife 10 years ago when they were both university students in Brisbane working at a video store.
They became engaged in early 2016 and mutually decided that he would take his fiancee’s surname later that year as they enjoyed drinks at Sydney’s Balmoral Beach near Mosman.
Their decision had nothing to do with making a statement about gender equality.
‘My dad especially was our biggest cheerleader. He loves my wife. He loves my wife’s family,’ he said. ‘No one had a concern at all.’