Anna Robards never expected to have the full fairy tale existence: to be married to former TV show Bachelor, Tim Robards with two adorable daughters and living in the perfect Sydney eastern suburbs’ home.

But that life took a dark turn when she was rushed into a two-hour surgery in a bid to stop the bleeding following Ruby’s birth in March.

“We had a few speed bumps to test us out and dad has a few more greys now,” she says, famously downplaying the life or death emergency.

Besides, Anna doesn’t have time to embrace the fear of what might have been, had the doctors not been on standby. She’s a fully-fledged Aussie health and beauty maven with Intu Wellness – the brand she co-founded with another young mum, entrepreneur, Christie Whitehall.

“I just didn’t think I would be on this amazing path,” she tells Australian Life, “I thought that I would be spending long days working as a lawyer,” she says.

Back in 2013 when Anna Heinrich entered Network Ten’s The Bachelor mansion, she was a young Sydney criminal lawyer. By the time she left in chiropractor Tim Robards’ warm embrace, she was on her way to becoming a social media star and TV personality, with other reality shows soon to be in the pipeline.

With almost 400,000 followers on Instagram alone, it’s clear that many Aussies relate to Anna Robards, which is why she is also in demand as a brand ambassador for everything from luxury hotel chains to toothpaste. She not only has wholesome good looks, but a quality that can never be faked – authenticity.

It is now several weeks since her youngest daughter, Ruby was born and makes a gorgeous addition to the family with three-year-old bubbly sister Elle. Today, Anna and I are chatting by phone. She’s actually taken the call while hovering in her garden. Still her voice is hushed, so as not to wake up the baby. Tim is inside as a hands-on dad.

The last time I interviewed Robards, 37, several years ago, it was in a city cafe in the shadow of the Downing Centre law courts in Sydney, close to the busy firm where she worked. Does she miss being a lawyer? Not even for a minute, it would seem.

“The reason that I went into law was because I wanted people to take me seriously and I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,” she says.

… now that I have two daughters and a business, [life is] much more full on …

“After I won The Bachelor, it was important that everyone wouldn’t only see me just as a reality show contestant. I wanted to prove that I was more than that,” she says.

Self-doubt and a lack of confidence is Anna Robards’ Achilles heel and something that she has struggled with throughout her life. But more about that later.

Right now, she’s adjusting to being a mother of two, which she is discovering is a little more challenging than having just one child, even without the tumultuous post-birth experience.

“I’m trying to juggle everything,” she says. “When our first little girl, Elle was born, we were in the middle of the COVID lockdown. It was so nice to stay at home and we baked bread and we did really nothing, so it was fantastic,” she says.

The couple didn’t have to get all dressed up and make appearances at events as one of the country’s most in demand A-listers.

“I also didn’t have my own beauty brand back then. But now that I have two daughters and a business, it’s much more full- on,” she admits.

It helps though that she is on a winner. There’s currently three products in the Aussie-made Intu Wellness supplements range including Sleep & Skin Renewal; Energy & Skin Radiance and Gut & Skin Rejuvenation. Each one is packed with natural ingredients. There also available through giant Australian beauty retailer, Mecca and you can click “buy now” to check out the range.

[Mecca] had a lot of faith in our product. We’d also offered it to their staff to trial, who loved it. So, they knew that it worked and it was effective, which is why they eventually took us on

“We were in negotiations with Mecca for over a year,” Robards reveals. “When we first approached them, they didn’t have a wellness category and we thought that we were being given the brush off.”

Luckily the pair was not deterred because just a few months later, the Mecca buyers came back and offered to take them on as the retailer’s first wellness ingestible.

“They had a lot of faith in our product. We’d also offered it to their staff to trial, who loved it. So, they knew that it worked and it was effective, which is why they eventually took us on.”

Robards and Whitehall, close friends, who also regularly socialise with their families, are now concentrating on developing other Intu Wellness products with another one on the drawing board.

“We’re not sure whether it will be released at the end of this year or the beginning of the following year,” Robards says, adding that it’s a “very expensive, time consuming process” to take on.

“So, that’s been something that we struggle with,” she explains. “We initially financed the brand ourselves but we’ve had to look for investors to help pay for the  new product research and development. We also want to scale internationally, so we will probably have to get finance for that as well.”

Operating a business is something completely new for Robards who grew up in a family engaged in 9-to-5 jobs.

“There were so many challenges that I’ve learnt to take in my stride,” she says. “Our first order was in the thousands but when we opened the tubs, we saw that the scoop was smaller than we had imagined. So, we had to change all the label’s instructions from taking just one scoop, to taking two.

It was just one of the endless issues that seem to come up on a daily basis.”

Robards is thankful for having joined the gruelling SAS Australia reality show in 2022, which she says has helped to equip her to deal with business setbacks and deal with her self-esteem issues.

“Appearing on SAS, really helped me with my self-belief,” she says. “I may come across as confident but deep down, I’m really not. I have always cared about what people think of me and hated feeling that. I’m someone who has always believed that I’m not good enough,” she continues.

On SAS Australia, she was able to show o  her incredible drive and discipline – leaping from a boat onto the dangling ladder of a helicopter before swinging herself inside and also shrugging off potential hypothermia. She certainly earned the respect of notorious tough guy host and instructor, Ant Middleton, who lauded her for being an incredible role model for other women out there.

“You should realise how headstrong you are,” he told her. “Don’t let anyone get into your head and tell you otherwise.”

So, it’s probably not surprising to learn that Robards worked right up to the day before Ruby’s birth and is now doing interviews just a few weeks after that, despite her own medical trauma.

“I’ve learnt the fine art of juggling and balance,” she laughs. “It’s because I want to keep working on Intu Wellness and I also want to be in the media as a brand ambassador. I love getting out there and not being house bound as I have been throughout the last few months. But then I also love being a mum, so I want to do it all,” she says with a self-deprecating laugh.