Sam and Snezana Wood fell in love on season three of The Bachelor, and six years and three kids later it’s easy to see why the pair have solidified themselves as the poster couple for the franchise.
WATCH Charlie Wood sees her birthday cake!
Not long after Sam chose Snezana in the season finale, she relocated from Perth to Melbourne with her daughter Eve, now 16, to begin her life with Sam.
The personal trainer popped the question just six months after the pair met, before tying the knot in a stunning ceremony in Byron Bay in December 2018.
The couple welcomed their first daughter Willow in October 2017, and their second, Charlie, was born in July 2019.
Sam takes any opportunity to proudly gush over his three girls, saying fatherhood has changed his life.
“With many of my closest friends having children a few years before I did, I would hear this continually and often wonder and dream about what they were referring to specifically,” he told Nine Honey in 2019.
“The love you feel, the life you once knew turned into beautiful chaos and gone forever, the lack of sleep. But it is all of these things and so, so much more.”
Sam said sometimes it “literally hurts” just how much he loves his three kids, saying he has become “so protective and perhaps even unhealthily infatuated”.
“I am blessed to now have three beautiful daughters,” he said.
Sam came into Eve’s life when she was just nine, and the stepdaughter/stepfather duo have formed an unbreakable bond in the years since, with the 41-year-old saying they get closer by the day.
“We really clicked right from the start, but our relationship has grown and grown,” Sam told WHO in 2019.
“I just want her to know that I’m there for her no matter what and that she’s my little girl and I love her to bits.”
Sam admitted being a stepfather to a teenager has its “challenges” but said the pair “are just great friends”.
“We love and challenge each other unconditionally and I cannot believe how fortunate I am to have her in my life.”
Sam said that despite meeting under “unusual circumstances” on the third season of The Bachelor, they were able to bond over their “unwavering love for Snezana”.
Snezana praised Eve as an “amazing big sister” to both Willow and Charlie, revealing she stepped up and helped out with feeding, bathing and putting them to bed.
“At the end of the day, Eve is a [teenage] girl who’d rather be taking selfies and hanging out with friends but she really does love them to bits. She has always wanted to be big sister,” she said.
Sam agreed, crediting Eve for helping keep him and Snezana sane while wrangling two little ones.
“She’s been a really big help, I think we need her even more this time because we kind of had two-on-two when it was just Willow and Evie and now that it’s Charlie as well you do find yourself a bit stuck where you’ve got to help with Charlie and Willow walks off, she’s far more mobile now,” he said.
While Sam is busy running his 28 fitness challenge and Woodshed gym, the personal trainer doesn’t let his successful businesses get in the way of being a “hands-on dad”.
“Sam in dad mode makes my heart explode. There is nothing more beautiful than watching Dad Sam do his thing. He absolutely loves his three girls and they all love him,” Snezana said.
“The girls (Eve and Willow) always go to Sam when they need something or want permission because chances are ‘Fun Dad’ is going to say yes. Unlike Mum, who’s the party pooper and will more likely say no!”
And while it might appear to their combined 600,000 Instagram followers that they have parenting two toddles down pat, the pair admit the secret to raising Willow and Charlie is to “divide and conquer”.
“If we’re conquering- divide and survive is probably a better way of putting it. Little Willow, she wakes up at about 6am and sort of calls out ‘Mummy, Daddy, cuddles,’ from her room,” Sam said.
“Snez has been up a fair bit during the night feeding and I can’t do that obviously so I take the early shift and try and give her a bit of a sleep in from 6-8 and then our day begins.
“But we’re going ok, Charlie hasn’t been too bad and Willow’s absolutely loving being a big sister, she thinks the whole thing is so cute.”
Last year Snezana got candid on mum-shaming and how her sudden catapult to national fame opened her up to a world of online bullying.
“I’ve been mummy shamed from when Eve was a little bubba – before I was in the spotlight or anything,” she said.
“I breastfed Eve for two years and I copped it. I was frowned upon for doing that.
“It’s stressful enough as a parent – without the added pressure of people telling you you’re not doing it right.”
“Almost three in four Australian mums and dads believe parent-shaming is worse than ever – and on the rise. I found I was getting mummy shamed online and in real life.”
Despite receiving the odd criticism, Snezana said being a mother is “the best feeling”.
“I love watching them grow, seeing their personalities come out – from breastfeeding to watching them go to school – being a mum is incredible,” she said.
Last month Sam admitted the bright side to Melbourne’s sixth lockdown is being able to spend quality time with his family-of-five, who are currently hunkered down in their Melbourne home.
“One step forward and two steps back, feeling trapped and not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. F**k, can’t even find the tunnel!”
“But trying to stay strong for myself, strong for my family and find the silver linings like my 3 girls spending time together as before we know it Eve will be all grown up and it will be gone.”
As for whether the couple plan to expand their brood, they admit only time will tell.
“We don’t know actually. It’s a really good question,” the personal trainer said when asked about having more kids in the future.
“I don’t know. I miss that really little baby that’s really depending on you. There’s something so sweet about it.
“We’ve definitely got our hands full, but we’d never say never”.
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