Bachelor star Anna Heinrich spills on the real Kyle Sandilands and fashion fails at the racetrack
Versatile former Bachelor star Anna Heinrich is busier than ever with spring racing fashion and putting her legal brain to good use on Trial By Kyle, and she thinks the shock jock has plenty to offer with his outspoken views.
Lifestyle
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Kyle Sandilands has at least one fan who would like to see a lot more of him on TV.
Bachelor star Anna Heinrich, who has been working with the controversial shock jock on his new show, Trial By Kyle, reckons he has plenty to offer with his outspoken views.
Heinrich, a criminal lawyer, had met the radio star only a handful of times before she signed on to be the voice of (legal) reason in a TV courtroom where Sandilands presides over a variety of civil disputes.
Although Sandilands has no legal training, he has plenty of experience sitting in judgment of others.
Who could forget the time he told Jessica Mauboy to “lose the jelly belly” when she was a teenager on Australian Idol in 2006?
His radio commentary has been equally harsh, once remarking that Bachelor star Matty Johnson looked like he had cancer.
Despite his controversial history, Heinrich has only nice things to say about Sandilands, describing the wisecracking celebrity as “totally professional, hardworking and polite”.
She’s even impressed by the forthright personality that has seen Sandilands in hot water multiple times during his career because she finds it refreshing to hear someone speak their mind so openly.
“I really think the Australian media needs more people like him,” Heinrich says.
“He’s just signed a new five-year contract to do his radio show with Jackie O. Clearly what he is doing is working. It’s funny because I am the total opposite to Kyle. I think that’s probably why we work so well together.”
Sandilands is characteristically less gushing about Heinrich, describing her as “vanilla and bland” but very clever and good at her job.
“I thought she had a good belly laugh at a lot of things, she surprised me that she had a good sense of humour,” he adds.
Heinrich says she has relished working on Trial By Kyle, which she says is a cross between Judge Judy and Jerry Springer, because it draws together her two careers as an entertainer and a lawyer.
Remarkably, Heinrich balances her TV courtroom commitments with her real-life legal work. She says, thanks to a very understanding boss, she has been able to continue to practice law part-time in between her increasing television schedule.
It was this same boss who gave her the green light to take time off to go on a then unknown show called The Bachelor in 2013, where she wooed and won her husband Tim Robards.
Although at the time it had seemed out of character for the naturally cautious Heinrich to do a reality show, she now feels like it was fate that made her take the plunge.
“It was a really difficult decision for me to do the show,” she says.
“I didn’t know whether I would be gone for a week or for months. I really didn’t know what to expect because the show had never been done here before. My boss was really good about it.
“I don’t think I would have gone on it if I didn’t have a job to come back to. But I was lucky they did because otherwise I wouldn’t have met my husband.”
Not everyone was as supportive of Heinrich’s decision to look for love in front of a TV camera.
“My dad advised me not to do it,” she says.
“But he absolutely loves Tim. And he couldn’t be happier that I found someone like him on the show. So perhaps he now regrets giving me that advice.”
Looking back, Heinrich isn’t sure that she and Robards would have ended up together if they had met in the real world rather than the fabricated one of single-stemmed red roses, sunset helicopter rides and cocktail parties in a candlelit mansion.
“The thing about that show is it gives you the opportunity to really get to know someone,” she says.
“Before that, I would go out on a date with someone and if something didn’t quite work, then I probably wouldn’t bother to see them again.
“Being on the show with Tim, I got to spend a lot of time with him before I made any snap decisions. Who knows what would have happened if we had met on the outside?”
The love affair between Heinrich and Robards captured the imaginations of the viewing public. It also meant that the couple suddenly found their personal lives in the spotlight.
She recalls one rather scary incident where a woman kept mouthing, ‘I love you!’ to her during a criminal hearing.
“It was really uncomfortable, and it made me realise it was probably better to try to keep the two things separate,” she says.
“So, I try to stay out of the courtroom as much as I can now. I do most of my work in the office instead.”
Another separation that has been brought on by her work commitments, is her life with Robards.
The handsome former chiropractor moved to Melbourne last year to join the cast of Neighbours, while Heinrich remains in the couple’s home in Sydney. But Heinrich doesn’t see the distance between them as a problem. Rather, she says, it’s a case of quality rather than quantity of time together.
She says she and Robards speak on the phone several times a day and spend weekends together. They’ve also just returned from a three-week overseas holiday together.
Now she’s looking forward to being part of Channel 10’s Spring Racing Carnival commentary team because it means she will get to spend a week in Melbourne with her husband.
He’s pretty happy about that too. “Usually I am the one flying to Sydney, but it will be great to have my wife come to my neck of the woods for the Cup Carnival,” Robards laughs.
“Anna is going to be busy with the racing, but I am excited to be able to attend with her. Hopefully we will have some fun being able to get ready together and sip a glass of champagne in there during the day somewhere! I am very proud of her for how hard she’s been working lately!”
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Fashion-savvy Heinrich has always loved a day at the track and describes the Cup Carnival as her favourite social event of the year because it’s an excuse to get frocked up and enjoy a few glasses of champers.
Always a stickler for the rules, whether it’s our justice system or the racing hierarchy, Heinrich says she always adheres to the strict dress codes and traditions of racing week.
She just wishes others would do the same thing.
“I think it’s really important to be respectful of the traditions,” she says.
“So, on Derby Day it should be black and white. I cannot stand to see someone wearing bright colours on that day. It’s so disrespectful.”
Trial By Kyle, Thursday, 8.30pm, Channel 10. 2019 Melbourne Cup Carnival, November 2-9, Channel 10.