Snezana Wood’s love story defies the reality dating show odds

This story is part of the June 16 edition of Sunday Life.See all 14 stories.

Meeting her future husband on an Australian TV dating show was not something Snezana Wood (nee Markoski) had seriously considered. As a single mother from Perth, and the oldest female contestant at 34 when she took part in the third season of The Bachelor in 2015, she felt the odds were not in her favour.

From concealing filming schedules from her boss and taking extended leave from her full-time job in retail to not being able to see her nine-year-old daughter Eve while making the show, Wood wondered what she had set herself up for. But it was a risk worth taking: she walked away from the show hand in hand with bachelor Sam Wood, a love story that is still going strong.

Wood is the first to admit she had no idea how appearing on the show would take her from anonymity in the Perth suburbs to an access-all-areas reality-TV life – The Bachelor brought instant fame and, eventually, 330,000 Instagram followers.

Now, almost a decade since she found her happily-ever-after, Wood reveals all in her memoir, Untold: A Story of Love, Motherhood, Heartbreak and Change. In the book, the 42-year-old opens up about her Macedonian upbringing, the impulsive decisions that shaped her formative years, raising Eve while living with her parents in their family home, and finding love on national television.

“A lot of people only knew me as the girl on The Bachelor, or as Sam’s wife, and I felt ready to address that by writing a book,” says Wood, who’s had to reorganise this interview several times due to the demands of raising her daughters Eve, 19, Willow, 6, Charlie, 4, and Harper, 2.

“People assume I’m sitting at home doing a few social media posts here and there and twiddling my thumbs. It’s hardly that. Life raising a family is busy.”

SNEZANA WOOD

“People assume I’m sitting at home doing a few social media posts here and there and twiddling my thumbs. It’s hardly that. Life raising a family is busy. But I will say that I did feel a bit empty after the show ended and I wondered what would happen in my life next.”

When Wood began writing Untold, it became a purging of sorts, a chance to go back into her emotional archives and make peace with her past. But that also required sharing it and being okay with putting private conversations on bookshelves for all to read.

Viktoria & Woods shirt, top and trousers. Dissh belt. Chanel earrings from Hawkeye Vintage.Credit: GK Photography

It was also an opportunity to better understand herself. Having become pregnant with Eve at 24 and married her baby’s father five months into her pregnancy, she still wasn’t sure why she’d married. Or why she stayed in an on-and-off relationship with Eve’s father for six years. She also wondered whether her parents’ “migrant mentality” had affected her career choices.

“I think many people can relate to me and have gone through some of the same things I have,” says Wood of her heart-on-sleeve approach.

Wood was born in Australia into a strict North Macedonian family – she is the eldest of three alongside her sister Lidija, whom she describes as her best friend, and brother Robert – but the family moved back Macedonia when she was four years old to reconnect with and hold on to cultural traditions. It was a period of huge adjustment for Wood, who felt torn between two cultural identities. Then, when her parents decided to return to Australia a year later, she again found herself sitting on the outside looking in.

An ongoing part of that was being bullied. “Reflecting on my years at high school was tough,” says Wood, who wrote Untold during breaks in which Sam took the girls to their second home in Mount Martha, Victoria. “Recounting those details for the book took me right back. It did feel like a therapy session.

“Life didn’t happen effortlessly for me and I really want to set that perception straight. I kept moving forward despite some choices I made, no matter how much chaos I experienced or how many things were going wrong in my life. I always chose to chase the life I really wanted and that’s how I got to where I am today.”

Behind a white picket fence in the family home in Elsternwick, Melbourne, is where the majority of Wood’s work/family juggle happens. Though Eve is about to relocate to New York to study fashion and marketing, with her three younger daughters requiring daycare and school drop-offs and pick-ups, she and Sam are in peak parenting mode.

Becoming a mother for a second, third and fourth time wasn’t necessarily on the cards for Wood, but meeting Sam changed everything. “When I went on the show, the thought that he might like to start a family didn’t really cross my mind,” she says.

The couple welcomed their first child, Willow, in 2017 and tied the knot in 2019. “As soon as Willow came along, it felt like a new start for me,” says Wood. “All my experiences of motherhood with Eve started to come back. But the fact I had Sam to help me through every aspect, from the birth to bringing her home, that was new.

“Giving that attention was so natural for him and [motherhood] felt easy with the right person,” she continues. “Knowing how to pack a bag for a baby that lasts a week, that was second nature to me. A man wanting to know was foreign in my experience, but Sam was so keen to be part of the journey.”

Sandro jacket. Homebodii x Snezana shirt. Her own jewelleryCredit: GK Photography

Their journey has also involved becoming a social media “it couple”. They’ve built on their profiles and turned them into wealth by developing fitness apps, putting their names to products and investing in property. Personal trainer Sam went from almost broke to selling his “28 by Sam Wood” fitness app for $71 million. Snezana’s contributions to the family fortune come through lucrative collaborations with fashion and jewellery brands. They’re clearly an inspiration for other couples seeking fame via reality TV.

Wood says the reason their marriage works is that they’re both on the same life page – chasing family happiness and sticking together through thick and thin. Sam was hugely supportive, for instance, when Wood, who went to university at the age of 30 and graduated with a degree in molecular biology in 2016, was diagnosed with ADHD in 2022.

“Being diagnosed with ADHD answered so many questions as to why I did things the way I did, and why I still do them so differently to someone like Sam,” she says. “The diagnosis helped me understand myself better.”

Bassike suit, Best Jumpers knit, vintage Comme des Garçons shirt.Credit: GK Photography

Sharing her family journey on social media can mean crossing rocky terrain, but Wood is fine with that and quite at ease sharing cute baby snaps, birthday celebrations and fashion collaborations. When it all gets too much, she switches off socials and watches her favourite movie, Iron Man. “I love anything action,” she says. “It takes me out of my head and into another zone. I love action, thriller and high drama. I can’t do romance.”

When it comes to inspiration, Wood looks to Spice Girl turned fashion entrepreneur Victoria Beckham. “I’ve always loved Victoria, her style and the fact she is real. She might look perfectly put together, but she’s as silly as the next person and has a great sense of humour when she uses social media. She has a posh exterior, but she’s not that at all. I love how down-to-earth she comes across.”

Perhaps there’s also a nod to the Beckham family in the way the Wood clan do life back in Melbourne – the loving glances caught on Instagram, the whole family beautifully dressed in their staged yet humble photos. It’s an aspirational lifestyle captured one frame at a time.

When it comes to fashion, Wood loves to mix luxury and high-street fashion brands – Zara jeans with Tom Ford stilettos, or a Balmain and Supré combination. She’s also about to launch a new seasonal collaboration with Homebodii. “I don’t say yes to just anyone,” she says. “When I put my name to something, it has to speak to me and align with my values.

“I’m in a public space and people are watching and judging,” she continues, explaining why that alignment is so important. “I get feedback whether I seek it or not. Once you’re on social media with lots of followers, there’s lots of noise. People feel they can criticise you. I’ve learnt to accept that people have opinions of me, and I can’t change that. I can only be who I am.”

Untold: A Story of Love, Motherhood, Heartbreak and Change (Hachette) by Snezana Wood is out June 26.

Styling, Simone Farrugia; Hair and make-up, Julia Green.

STOCKISTS Dissh; Hawkeye Vintage; Homebodii; Sandro; Viktoria & Woods