TikTokers Jaden and Andy McGrew face backlash over ‘controversial’ marriage rules

A young newlywed couple has gone viral on TikTok for sharing a few habits that they have instituted in their marriage — habits that others feel are “controversial,” according to comments they’ve received on the social media platform.

“We received backlash on multiple videos we posted regarding some of the things we mentioned we do,” wife Jaden McGrew told Fox News Digital via email. 

McGrew and her husband, Andy, who live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, shared a video to their joint TikTok account highlighting the marital habits they practice — habits that some other people feel are over the top (see the TikTok video in question at the top of this article).

Among the couple’s habits: First, they share their live location with each other “24/7.” 

Second, they share all passwords with each other and “have no secrets.”

Third, they shared that “hanging with the opposite gender alone” is off-limits in their marriage.

One TikTok user commented, “How often do y’all check that stuff? Having it is one thing, checking on each other all the time sounds like a trust problem.”

Another commented, “Tell me you don’t trust each other without telling me…”

Yet another replied, “You almost had me! I don’t care who my husband hangs out with … because I trust him.”

The McGrews say these guidelines have proven to work for them.

“These are things we agreed on in our relationship over time and from experience,” Jaden McGrew said.

“We never really sat down and came up with ‘rules,’ but that seems to be how people have interpreted it.”

She added, “These are just things that work for us in our current stage of life, and we were shocked to see how controversial they were!” 

Noting that they are both Christian and their marriage is “rooted in our faith,” McGrew said these habits are not based on their religion alone.

“While we believe that marriage is the greatest commitment one can make and want to protect our marriage, none of the things mentioned in the video are based solely on our faith,” she said.

“For example, sharing location is just practical and allows us to check in on each other without having to wait on a response.” 

A Chicago-based clinical social worker and therapist weighed in on the topic, saying that while she respects that “what may work well for one couple might not work well for another couple,” the guidelines seem “rather strict” to her.

“I’ve worked with couples after infidelity who have implemented these rules because trust has been broken,” therapist Kelley Kitley told Fox News Digital by email. 

To start off a marriage in this fashion appears to signal “a lack of trust,” Kitley also said.

“Every relationship, including marriage, should have some sense of privacy — although nothing that would hurt the other person,” Kitley continued. 

“These ‘rules’ seem to have the other person under a microscope, insinuating that they are entering the union without trust.”

Kitley offered the following three habits and practices that newly married couples should take part in, in her view.

1. Make sure you are engaging in sexual intimacy once a week.

2. Greet each other in the morning and/or at the end of the day with a hug and a kiss.

3. Send texts during the day to let your partner know you are thinking about him/her.

Some people on TikTok applauded the young couple’s guidelines, however.

“I feel like these are all normal things,” one person commented.

Another commenter said, “Those are wise decisions.”

Another person wrote, “These things are controversial? Here I was thinking [they’re] just practical.”