Sam Wood has opened up about life as The Bachelor almost one year since he first appeared on the show. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Picture this; good looking Aussie guy, a personal trainer, is (no surprise) picked to clean up the mess his predecessor, Blake Garvey, left behind on The Bachelor.

A love story prevails, good guy finds hot single mum, and all ends happily ever.

Then he’s offered gigs on Home and Away and “every reality TV show under the sun you can imagine”. Handed every opportunity on a silver platter, how could you like this guy?

And while he has scored his own TV show, Everyday Health, a new lifestyle health and wellness series airing every afternoon on Channel Ten, which we’re told “will touch on all sorts of themes that are relevant to our wellbeing”, The Bachelor babe has opened up about life before and after the reality TV series — and it’s hard to hate him for it.

Since taking on the daily-show format, set to air later this year, Wood has revealed an infinitely different personal experience almost 12 months since his face first appeared on Aussie screens.

“The more I discovered as The Bachelor application process went on I thought, ‘whoa, I really underestimated how big this is’,” Sam explained to news.com.au.

“You’re getting asked more personal questions in a 13-week period than most people are asked in a lifetime with a camera in your face.

“The Bachelor is a very stressful environment and a lot of the girls didn’t handle it that well, it got to them and that’s understandable.

“I think it’s obvious people go on these shows for the fame, both men and women, I totally understand it. I have no doubt some of the girls on my season that that was their primary objective. But it doesn’t really work, you might get your five minutes but it’s not something with any sustainability or substance.”

It’s been a long year for the personal trainer-turned TV heart throb.

Sam cosies up with Perth mum Snezana Markoski, whom he wooed in The Bachelor.Source:Supplied

The finale of The Bachelor, which saw Wood declare his love for Perth mum Snezana Markoski, scored a whopping 2.08 million viewers and was the most talked about non-sport program since Nielsen Twitter TV ratings began, but processing that experience was tougher than he could have ever predicted.

“You’ve got so many people telling you to be careful because you’re so new at it [the fame game], it’s a flip-your-life-upside-down overnight experience,” he told news.com.au.

“I hated not being able to fully be myself. You’ve got that birdie on your shoulder saying, ‘just be careful’.

“It is hard, I feel most comfortable when I can say what I want to say and I don’t feel like I have anything to hide and can be myself.

“The producers of the show, they warn you, they say, ‘look mate, you gotta understand once this goes to air, it’s a very very popular show on Australian television, we attract over a million viewers a night during prime time, you are going to be one of the most recognisable faces in the country almost overnight. How long that lasts, who knows, but at least while the show is on air, that’s going to be the case’.

“I listened to them, I understood what they were saying, but until it happens you’re kind of like ‘whoah, I had no idea’.

“Literally it went from me being able to walk down the street, minding my own business, to every person you walk past turning around and pointing, saying, ‘I know who that is’, asking for photos, paparazzi following you, it was just crazy, absolutely crazy.

“There’s some crappy parts about it, like you don’t have the same privacy, and you get pestered a little bit.

“I understand when people meet on reality TV people have doubts, but the more people get to meet us, the more they realise we are in love with each other and are the real deal.

“After 12-months you get back to that stage where the scepticism of Snez and I probably has dropped off a little bit.”

Lovebirds.Source:Supplied

Proving us all wrong, Sam and Snez have broken the reality TV mould; they’re still together 12-months later, and while they’re still living long distance lives, the lovebirds are finally moving forward, purchasing a property in Elsternwick, in Melbourne’s southeast. The move is expected to take place any time now.

“We finished filming almost exactly a year ago, and then obviously the first 12 weeks of our relationship was all very cloak and dagger and top secret because it was only just going to air, obviously therefore we could only see in each in top secret.

“It’s really hard, the long distance. We’ve been in the public spotlight a bit, but Snez and I haven’t been apart for more than two weeks.

“It sucks, it costs a fortune, it’s definitely not the ideal situation, but obviously you have to be sensitive towards the fact it’s a massive move for her to come to the other side of Australia with her little girl [10-year-old Eve], you just need to do these things sensitively and at the right time.

“We’re doing the right things so that when they do get over here, it’s going to be forever.”

And while they’re not exactly opposed to the spotlight, Sam says the couple are “craving normality”; a reason why they chose to opt out of televising their upcoming nuptials.

“It’s something that was kind of floated to us,” he said.

“Snez and I spoke to Channel Ten, about how that would look, and they were incredibly respectful when they asked us, they said, ‘no pressure but if you’d like to do it, we’d love to do it’, and we politely declined.

“The gifts are attractive in the short term, it’s easy to get drawn to that, all the bells and whistles but then in the long term, we’d be far better off doing it right and privately, without the risk of things being tarnished or jaded.”

But despite it all, would he do it all again?

“Absolutely, there’s no regrets. If someone said asked if I would do it again tomorrow, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

- youngma@news.com.au