Tim Robards opens up about fame, love and social media

WITH the third season of The Bachelor off and racing, we take a look back at the debut Australian season’s adorable couple.

WITH the third season of The Bachelor off and racing, here at news.com.au we find ourselves feeling nostalgic about the debut Australian season and its adorable first couple.

Tim Robards and Anna Heinrich have stayed together since the end of the series in 2013 and have both carved out successful media profiles — Tim launched his health program The Robards Method and Anna just started up her own blog, Love Always, Anna.

They’ve got a combined Instagram following of 274,000 people, who follow their many weekends away to Bali and red carpet appearances. Tim and Anna share almost everything with their followers — from their Saturday nights in front of the couch to joint couples workouts.

From the outset, their lives seem as nauseatingly perfect as their ripped, tanned bodies.

But as Tim revealed in an exclusive ‘On The Couch’ chat with news.com.au’s Melissa Hoyer and morning television hosts Larry Emdur and Sarah Harris, Instagram doesn’t always tell the whole story.

Here are the best snippets from the interview, where Tim opens up about fame, love and social media.

ON FINDING FAME ON REALITY TV

“I think when you go through the process we went through, a lot of people follow you. It’s like watching The Notebook. They follow you for a little love story.

They obviously like it for a bit of entertainment, but they do aspire to that kind of love story and you definitely have a responsibility after the show to continue to show that and keep inspiring people. So it is a nice position of responsibility and when it comes through on TV, you can see if someone is a decent person. It shows.”

HIS SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

“If you look at our Instagram, it follows our core principles which are family, travel, food, love ... but luckily [Anna] is my partner and we have similar values. So I think if we kind of stick to those main things and I find if you live your life to those values then you are going to be good at whatever you apply yourself to.

So there is a lot of travel, health fitness, that is what I’m doing with my program — promoting and encouraging people with good health.

I think it’s not about me, it’s about them [his followers]. So any Instagram photos or anything that I do is about ‘How can I better other people’s lives?’.

That gives you your integrity and of course there is a bit back for me, I want to enjoy what I am doing as well. If it’s all about you — It’s like ‘Hey look at me, look at me!’ — that side of the fame, then that will come through as well.”

ON KEEPING IT REAL

“Those particular photos [of us] sitting on the couch on Instagram may not get a lot of likes, but people still appreciate it. They [our followers] may not stop and like it but they see it and that still is there as an overall picture of you. So when you look over your whole Instagram — you are trying to inspire rather than [get likes on] one individual photo.”

THE DOWNSIDE OF FAME

“You do have to always be ‘on’ and you always have to be careful as you walk out of the house. If you are having a bit of a bad day, if you are walking in Bondi and have a growly face, if you have just had a bit of an argument or anything really, you just have to be slightly always on.

It does encourage you to always be the best version of yourself, to a certain degree. So that is the thing I like too — it makes you different — to always be on and stress is one thing but to always be the best version of yourself — if you can do that and not stress about it is another great inspiration.”

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF SELLING HIS WEDDING PHOTOS

“Is it too intrusive? Is it serving people? Or is it all about us? You know — give me the money — so if we can do it in a way that it does both then possibly, but I don’t know, I think it has got to be right for us first, then we will see what we can do about that.

But we are kind of doing it the other way around, where we are creating our own space through social media and YouTube and blogs and an online program. There is a whole space out there, where rather than waiting for the network to call, you are just creating your own content and when you have your own stuff, you are calling the shots also.”

ON WHO HE ADMIRES

“I always look up to Arnold Schwartzneger, only because he has gone from someone who didn’t have much when he was younger to a millionaire by the time he was 20 with his own company and he has been the top in his field in his sport.

[He was] pretty much the best in the world at one stage in his acting and he would have almost been the most powerful man in the world, if the laws allowed him to be president. Obviously he made some mistakes but he learned from it. He is someone I’d love to sit down to dinner with.”

More from the ‘On The Couch’ series: ‘Sarah Harris tells it like it is’

Follow Melissa on Instagram and Twitter — @melissahoyer.