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For seven long years, between the ages of 18 and 25, Snezana Markoski led a life she hadn’t intended – “going back and forth” in a relationship with the father of her daughter Eve.
Snezana opened up about the relationship in her 2024 memoir Untold: A story of love, motherhood, heartbreak and change. In it, she described the relationship as “on-again, off-again” before she fell pregnant, resulting in her marrying Eve’s father when she was five months along.
Calling her first pregnancy a “scary and exciting time”, the former Bachelor star said that having a baby on the way didn’t heal the cracks that were forming in her relationship.
“I spent weekends on my own wondering where he was, because he would disappear for days,” Snezana claimed in her book, also writing that she drove herself to hospital when she went into labour.
Snezana credits her daughter for giving her the motivation to leave the relationship and embark on life as a single mum.
“It was Eve who stopped the cycle. Having her made me realise that I deserved better. SHE deserved better.”
Indeed, back then, Snezana – who would eventually go on to marry fellow Bachelor star Sam Wood – shared how baby Eve gave her “a new sense of purpose” amid a difficult time.
“If it hadn’t been for her, I would’ve stayed in the hopeless situation I felt stuck in,” the star shared in her memoir.
“I thought the life I was living was as good as it’d get for me. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t have anything to look forward to, I lost all ambition.
“My dreams seemed beyond my reach. My self esteem and my self worth was shattered, I couldn’t see a way out or even a stepping stone in the direction of a way out. When I had my daughter, instantly it all changed.”
After the birth of her baby, it would end up being an offer from her beloved parents that set Snezana on a different path.
While at the time, the former dental nurse – who has Macedonian heritage – explained that in her culture it was “embarrassing, shameful and disgraceful” for a woman to leave her husband, her parents invited her and Eve to live with them.
The offer gave her the courage to change her life.
“I wanted so much for Eve, and I knew none of it was going to happen if I stayed in this marriage,” Snezana shared in her memoir.
“That’s the reason I got out. Eve gave me the strength to leave. I needed to do more with my life, for myself and for Eve.”
The star said it was “one of the hardest things” she’d ever done.
“I understand why so many people stay in situations like mine because they’re too afraid of the unknown,” she explained.
“Where will I go, how will I provide for my child? What if I’m just being dramatic? What if things get worse if I leave? What if this is the better situation to be in?”
Looking back, Snezana admitted that if it were not for her baby girl – and her parents’ support – she might have stuck out her relationship “for years and years”.
“Eve gave me the courage and my parents gave me the support I needed to leave. It was a step in the right direction,” Snezana explained, adding that she married her husband because she didn’t want to embarrass her family by having a child out of wedlock.
“It meant the world to me knowing my parents were happy for me to come home,” she wrote in her memoir.
‘I can do this,’ I told myself repeatedly. And that’s exactly what I did.
“Before Eve turned one, we left with the clothes on our backs and moved to my parents’ house. I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any money. I had to start again from scratch. With a little baby. It was tough, but at the same time I was grateful to be living with my parents. It was the best thing I could have done for Eve.”
Snezana’s former husband Jason had broken his back in a dirt bike accident around six months before their split.
In a 2015 interview with the Herald Sun, he acknowledged that after the accident, “I didn’t cope very well and went into a downhill spiral and pushed all my loved ones away”.
But looking back over her life-changing decision in her memoir, Snezana explained that once she left her relationship she knew “there was no going back”.
“It wasn’t going to be like all the times before; I wasn’t going to return to the relationship in a few months,” she shared.
“This time it was definitive. I was done. I walked away and never looked back.”
Untold: A story of love, motherhood, heartbreak and change by Snezana Wood is published by Hachette Australia.
