Phoebe Burgess shares why she STILL keeps ex-husband Sam's surname seven years after split: 'For the kids'

Phoebe Burgess may have suffered through an acrimonious split with her ex-husband, NRL player Sam Burgess, but she is hanging onto his surname. 

The former WAG, whose maiden name is Phoebe Hooke, says that despite the couple divorcing seven years ago, she will continue to bear the footballer's name for the sake of her young children. 

Phoebe, 37, and Sam, 37, share two kids: daughter Poppy, nine, and son Billy, seven, and the influencer says it's important to her to share her surname with them. 

'I made a decision (from back then) to this day: that the children were going to go through enough fundamental, earth-shattering change, but they didn't need to be one name while I was another,' Phoebe told this week's issue of Stellar Magazine. 

'I've been so rigid in keeping some things in place because I was wanting to protect them,' she added. 

Phoebe says that she is still routinely asked about her decision to keep Sam's surname, which she feels is a little unfair. 

'Those decisions can often be quite rushed,' she told the publication. 

'In the immediate aftermath (of my divorce) … that was something that people were really fixated on.' 

It comes after Phoebe explained how she had tried to leave her unhappy marriage several times before agreeing to a divorce. 

It was originally believed that Phoebe first separated from Sam in December 2018 before reconciling in April the following year, only for things to end for good six months later.

But Phoebe revealed this week that she and Sam rekindled their relationship as many as six times before their relationship finally ended. 

'We went back five or six times. That highway got a workout,' she told her co-host Hannah Ferrier on the first episode of their (OVER)SHARE podcast.  

'I'd pack everything and f**king leave and then I'd go back.'

Phoebe said the COVID pandemic ultimately helped her break the cycle.

'Covid was the thing I could lean on to stay away. To stay home and to utterly melt into the f**king scenery and just be with the kids,' she explained.

Phoebe also spoke about the humiliation of having her marriage fall apart in the public eye, recalling the devastating moment she discovered Sam's sexual misconduct had become a newspaper story in 2018.

Meanwhile, Sam has recently been in the headlines after announcing his new wife Lucy is pregnant with their third child.

Lucy announced the news back in July, posting a video of herself surrounded by her family, including former NRL star Sam and their two children, daughter Robbie and son Mack.