Anna Heinrich reveals real reason why she said yes to SAS Australia

She’s survived The Bachelor mansion and the I’m A Celebrity jungle, and now Anna Heinrich is set to face her fears on season three of SAS Australia.

The reality TV star is one of the 17 famous faces being pushed beyond their limits in a series of extreme physical and psychological challenges from the real SAS selection process.

Chatting with Yahoo Lifestyle about why she decided to participate in what’s been described as “TV’s toughest test”, Anna reveals that she initially turned down the offer.

“It’s a show that I never thought I would go on, to be honest,” she admits.

“I got a call up about it and I pretty much was like no, it's just not me. And I think the reason I said that was because it was so far out of my comfort zone that I never thought I could do it, and I'm one of those people that only likes to go into things when I know I can do something.”

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Anna eventually changed her mind after having plenty of long conversations with her husband, Tim Robards, who thought she would benefit from the experience.

“When you think you're never going to do something and then you do it, I think that's the proudest moment, just sort of signing up and saying, ‘I'm going to give this a go’,” she continues, adding with a laugh, “If I don’t do well, I’m going to blame my husband!”.

'Girl power'

Speaking about the expectations she set for herself going onto the show, Anna says it was important that she made it past the first day.

“You don't want to be the first one to leave, but also I feel like people probably look at me and think, 'Oh, she won't be able to do it. It's so bloody tough, there's no way Anna’s going to do it’, so they immediately think that I'm going to fail,” she details.

“But I wanted to prove not only to others but to myself that I could do it for my family. I've got a little girl so I wanted to make her proud and show a bit of girl power and when you put your mind to something, despite if you don't even want to do it, you can do it.”

“And also, it's not so much about where you come, it's more about pushing yourself to your absolute limit and exceeding your expectations. So if you get out on the second day and you've pushed yourself to the absolute limit, then that's fine.”

'A lot stronger than you think'

Among this year’s group of celebrities who have put their hand up for the gruelling military training series are Olympians, champion boxers, football legends and fellow TV personalities.

While Anna acknowledges that she might not appear to be the strongest among the cast, she asserts that viewers should never judge a book by its cover.

“I think I literally compared myself to everybody on the first day and I was like, I just don't even know if I can do this, look at these people,” she recalls.

“I think it kind of surprised me with how certain people went and how you have these expectations from the get go, but that doesn't mean that's what's going to play out. The people that you think are mentally weak and not as strong are actually a lot stronger than you think.

“It’s going to be a really good show!” she adds. “I'm really excited. I think it's also going to be quite different from the previous seasons, just because of the people.”

SAS Australia airs at 7:30pm Monday to Wednesday on Channel 7 and 7plus.

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