Married Couple Breaks Silence on Viral Rumors: Is Their Love Real or Just a Transaction?

Is it possible to fall in love on the internet and end up fighting trolls instead of dragons? Apparently, yes—and sometimes your fairy tale becomes everyone else’s favorite controversy. Meet Shane Burcaw and Hannah Aylward, the couple who traded in white picket fences for viral videos and a not-so-tiny army of skeptics—seriously, if I had a dime for every stranger who thought they understood someone else’s marriage on Instagram, I’d buy Twitter and fill it with corgi GIFs. While most of us are busy dodging awkward family reunions or fretting over whether pineapple belongs on pizza, these two are fielding outrageous online accusations: Is their love even real? Is she cheating? Is he bribing her? You’d think they’d secretly be writing scripts for a reality show called “Marriage Unfiltered: The Comment Section.” Yet, instead of ducking for cover, they dish out witticisms, owning their story on YouTube and TikTok with an honesty that makes trolls look, well… even smaller under the bridge. It makes me wonder—what exactly is it about someone else’s happiness that sets off the comment brigade? Buckle up; this isn’t your usual love story. This one is fierce, funny, and a little bit revolutionary. LEARN MORE.

A married couple have been praised for sharing the perfect response to online trolls who constantly question whether their romance is genuine.

Shane Burcaw and Hannah Aylward are used to people finding their relationship ‘pretty peculiar’ – however, they simply can’t get their head around the horrible comments people constantly make about them.

The pair enjoy documenting their journey through married life together online and share snippets on their YouTube channel, social media accounts, while discussing the details of it on their podcast Junkyard Mayhem.

Shane suffers from a severe muscle-wasting disease and relies on a wheelchair, while Hannah does not – and people strangely have a lot to say about it.

Many leave a lot of cruel comments under their content, with some even suggesting that their relationship isn’t as authentic as they suggest.

The couple, who got hitched in September 2020, explained that trolls relentlessly quiz them about whether they’re ‘actually a married couple’, if Hannah ‘is cheating’ on her husband and if Shane is ‘paying her’ to be his wife.

And in a recent tongue-in-cheek TikTok video, they decided to address each of these rude remarks that they are constantly bombarded with.

Shane Burcaw and Hannah Aylward say online trolls constantly question their relationship (YouTube/@squirmyandgrubs)

Shane and Hannah – who are also known as Squirmy and Grubs online – introduced themselves as ‘a married couple’ in unison to clear up any confusion surrounding their relationship status.

They then said: “Does that make you want to leave a comment saying there’s no way we’re actually a married couple? Or that she’s cheating on me? Or that he’s paying me?

“Uh oh! Ableism alert. Disabled people can and do make wonderful romantic partners and are just as worthy as non-disabled people. So you can take those comments, and shove them up your…”

In the caption of the post shared at the end of last month, the pair explained they had ‘seen one too many annoying comments’ as of late and so decided to bite back.

Social media users flooded the comment section with praise for Shane and Hannah’s response and the clip quickly racked up more than 187,000 views and thousands of comments.

The couple shared a TikTok slamming cruel commenters (YouTube/@squirmyandgrubs)

One person said: “The fact you have to make this video hurt my heart. You two are relationship goals.”

Another wrote: “People can’t understand what they’ve never experienced. And it’s clear a lot of people have never experienced genuine unconditional love. How sad for them.”

A third laughed: “You guys crack me up! Love watching you two.”

And a fourth chimed in: “People are just jealous of you guys.”

Inevitably though, there were still a few trolls lurking in the comment section who didn’t have anything nice to say – although Shane and Hannah have developed thick skin since launching their social media careers.

Hannah explains on their YouTube channel that although her husband’s disability ‘plays a huge role in our relationship’, it is ‘not in the way that most people expect’.

The couple have shared countless videos answering questions from their 1.85 million subscribers about how Shane’s health struggles impact them both, while they also share travel vlogs, story times and have discussed their sex life.

In one, they explain that Shane was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2, which the couple described as ‘a progressive disease that causes muscle deterioration and weakness’.

According to the NHS, symptoms of this rare genetic disease include muscle weakness, movement problems, problems with breathing or swallowing, twitching or shaking muscles, as well as bone and joint problems.

There is no cure for it and it gets worse over time, however, sufferers can use medicines and treatments to help manage their symptoms.