She spent her early childhood in Aix-en-Provence, France, before the family headed back to the Netherlands where she undertook her primary school education.

The family then moved to Singapore, where she studied at the United World College of South East Asia, before returning to the Netherlands, where she completed an International Baccalaureate at the Rijnlands Lyceum Oegstgeest.

During her university years, Anita undertook an internship in London at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency.

Anita was employed in 1997 by the Amsterdam branch of Bloomberg, and was subsequently sent to London for a stint in Sales/Marketing and Television Production.

Anita gave birth to a daughter, Emma Francisca Catharina van Vollenhoven, on 28 November 2006.