Robert Irwin has opened up about the impact of losing his dad, Steve, in his most emotional interview yet.
The Wildlife Warrior sat down with Anderson Cooper on the CNN podcast ‘All There Is’, speaking candidly about growing up without his father and how he still tries to stay connected to him all these years on.
Steve Irwin was only 44 years old when he died suddenly in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb. Robert was only two at the time.
Robert admitted he “completely” and “totally” felt his dad’s absence growing up and that the grief never really goes away.
“When I walk around our place at Australia Zoo, being here, in the place that he built, I feel him so completely, but it’s impossible not to feel that equal sense of emptiness of him not being here,” he said.
He revealed his greatest fear is forgetting how his dad “felt.”
“That was something that would really keep me up at night,” he said.
It’s his mum, Terri Irwin, he says, who has kept Steve’s memory alive for him.
“She is the reason why I have such a clear picture of who he was.”
Robert also spoke about how his grief differs from his sister’s – Bindi Irwin was eight when Steve died.
“My struggle is the fear of losing those memories of him, my sister had so much more time with him … that grief journey is different for her. I think it stings more [for her], for me it’s a blanket that’s suffocating me, but for her it’s a stab.”
He went on to reveal one extraordinary moment in the wild that left Robert – and the listener – in tears.
While leading his first-ever crocodile research expedition in northern Australia, Robert caught a massive crocodile, only to discover it had been tagged before.
Not by his team, but by his dad, twenty years earlier. In the exact same spot.
“It felt like that was Dad being like, ‘This is your first time leading the team. You’re on the right track. Here’s a little sign.’ It felt like that to me.”
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