Bindi Irwin: the Crocodile Hunter’s little girl is all grown up and in love
At 19, Bindi Irwin, daughter of the original Wildlife Warrior Steve Irwin, is all grown up and, writes Michael Sheather, she has fallen in love with a man who may one day walk in her father’s footsteps.
It is an emotion as irresistible and irrational as it is all encompassing and consuming: young love, with all its passion and purity. You only have to look at Bindi Irwin, the 19-year-old daughter of Steve Irwin, to know that she is in love with her boyfriend Chandler Powell.
It is present in the way she laughs, the way they hook their fingers together as they walk, but mostly it is in the way she smiles when he holds her hand.
“I’m lucky, very lucky,” says Bindi, placing her left hand on Chandler’s and giving it a squeeze. “I’m lucky I have found the one, the person I want to spend all my time with. We’re both lucky to have found that person, because that doesn’t always happen for people and we’re still so young.”
It’s little more than a decade ago that Bindi was a little girl riding on her famous father’s shoulders.
Yet here she is, all grown up and introducing Australia to Chandler, the 20-year-old American-born wakeboarding champion.
They are happy, relaxed and open, speaking for the first time about their relationship, which has flourished during the past four years and, if their warmth and obvious connection is anything to go by, will continue to flourish into the future.
Perhaps most importantly, Chandler shares all of the Irwin passion for animals, reptiles and conservation, a legacy of his upbringing in the Florida wetlands, where snakes, lizards and alligators abound.
There is an obvious parallel to Bindi’s croccentred upbringing in Australia Zoo, where Steve kept Bindi and her younger brother Robert by his side in both public and private encounters with the crocodiles that meant so much to him. Those parallel paths are now intimately joined. Chandler spends an increasing part of his life at Australia Zoo, living side by side with the Irwins and learning the ropes as a croc handler, with the ambition of one day joining Bindi and her family in the main arena, wrangling the reptilian giants as Steve once did.
No one is suggesting that Chandler could, or would wish to, replace Steve. Steve’s enormous personality still colours everything at Australia Zoo. Rather, Chandler is sharing that legacy alongside Bindi, albeit in the familiar Irwin family khakis.
While Chandler shares Bindi’s passion for the outdoors and outwardly shares a lot in common with her father Steve, the question remains; what would Steve think about Chandler? “That’s a good question,” says Bindi. “Mum and Robert and I have talked about that a lot. We all think Dad would have loved Chandler.
“Chandler is so kind and so up for anything that comes his way. He is definitely not one of those people who worries about getting his hands dirty and that’s something that Dad always appreciated – people who wanted to get involved, learn and genuinely show an interest. That’s what is great about Chandler – he’s able to read a situation but also listen and learn.”
Chandler was born and raised in Seffner, Florida, a small town of around 7500 people outside Tampa, where he lives with his family on
“Chandler is so kind and so up for anything that comes his way.”
the shore of a lake, where he learned to water-ski and wakeboard. “Ever since I was a little boy, I was running around the backyard in Florida catching little snakes, lizards and alligators,” he says. “Florida has great wildlife, too. I grew up outside, always jumping in the lake, always covered in mud. I had huge collections of plastic fish and snakes and sharks. I’d put them in the bath and I’d take my snorkel and fins and mask and go diving with them.”
Bindi slaps Chandler on the shoulder. “That’s my favourite Chandler story,” she says. “I love going to the Powell house because they have photos all over the walls. There are nice, normal pictures of Chandler’s parents and his brother – and then there’s Chandler, covered in mud, doing something dangerous, adventurous, daring or holding an animal. It’s pretty funny.”
It’s also indicative of their shared passions. “It’s lovely to have met someone who is so wonderful all round – kind, sharing and strong,” Bindi says. “It’s really good to be in a relationship with someone like that. My mum and dad always used to say that there are different kinds of strengths, and I think that is what is great about Chandler – he has a strength within that’s unlike anyone else I have ever met and that’s nice.”
It was this passion for the outdoors and animals in general that initially brought the couple together four years ago, when the handsome young wakeboard champion visited Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, with his parents during a trip overseas.
“I was in a wakeboarding competition here in Australia and I wanted to come and see Australia Zoo,” recalls Chandler. “I’d grown up watching Steve and Terri’s documentaries on
TV. I loved seeing how Steve was able to inspire people by getting up close to the animals and [saying], ‘You shouldn’t do this but I’m going to
“Mum came in and said, ‘Who is this? Is this real?’”
do it and show you.’ Just by doing that, people fell in love with him and with the animals. He was so inspiring, and Bindi and her family have kept that inspiration going.”
On the day Chandler visited the zoo, Bindi was leading the private tours. They bonded almost immediately. “You have those moments where you just meet someone and you know from that second that you are on the same wavelength, the same page, and we could talk for ages right from the word go,” he says. “You know when you click with someone and ever since we have grown closer and closer.”
Of course, romance wasn’t exactly on the itinerary during that tour. Chandler returned to the US, but Bindi was always on his mind. “I remember coming back to America and thinking, wow, she is just amazing. I have to stay in touch with her,” he says. “I’d clicked with her better than I have ever clicked with anyone else and I had to stay in touch. I really didn’t know how to do that, so eventually I wrote a letter to Terri asking if I could keep in touch. That was the only way I could see how it might happen.”
Even so, when Terri received the letter she didn’t know what to make of it. “Mum came in and said, ‘Who is this? Is this real?’” recalls Bindi. “However, in the end, it was so lovely that she thought I should follow it up, and I did. And I’m glad I did.”
After exchanging letters and finally meeting up again in the US, Bindi
and Chandler’s initial connection quickly blossomed into something more. In late September 2015, he made his first public appearance on her arm at a function in the US and the world knew they were an item.
“We know that no matter what happens, we will both look at it in the same way,” says Chandler. “Whatever we do, we are both going to love it. It’s beautiful to know that whatever you do, your best friend is going to be right beside you doing it, too.”
It is, says Bindi, the nature of love that we each wait to meet that special someone but it doesn’t always happen. “You may wait 15 years, or 35 years or 102 years to find that person,” she says. “I believe there’s always someone for everyone and when you find that one, as we have found each other, it’s a real blessing and a privilege. It is not something to be taken lightly. We’re lucky to have found each other. And you have to hold on to that love when you find it.”
Chandler feels the same way. “It’s vital, when you find love, that you realise it for what it is,” he says. “Otherwise, you might spend your whole life searching but never finding it. I’m so lucky I’ve realised it so young and we have all of our lives ahead of us to enjoy the ride.”
Moreover, that makes people curious as to what is in their future. The M word – marriage – pops up constantly. “Because we are so lucky and always together, people keep saying, ‘So when are you getting married?’” says Bindi. “However, I feel that we push too hard, too soon in so many things in our lives – when are you going to have kids, when are you going to retire? When are you going to die? For us, we are happy just being together and enjoying the adventure. Why rush that next part of our lives as well? If you are having fun and enjoying your lives, you don’t have to rush. We’re still young.”
Bindi says that all people really want in life is more time. “I always think about that with what happened to Dad,” she says. “I would give anything to have another minute, hour, year with Dad but I have to be thankful for the time that I had. It was eight wonderful years. It was a short time but filled with so many adventures. I believe you have to revel in the now because you don’t know what’s going to happen next.
“We have something really great and what’s also great is that
Robert and Mum love Chandler, too.”
Of course, along with the many similarities between Bindi and Chandler, there’s another intriguing parallel. Terri, an American, met Steve Irwin at Australia Zoo during a visit. They fell in love. Chandler, an American, met Bindi in the same place. And they fell in love, too.
“It’s funny how that worked,” says Bindi. “It’s just the opposite. Chandler is the American. It goes all the way through the relationship, too, all the way down to my dad being the greatest cook. He was the chef of the family and he’d cook amazing big meals. Mum would help out and put everything away because he’d get out every pot and pan in the kitchen. I feel bad because I tend to do the same thing and Chandler has to help clean up.”
However, Bindi’s steak is the redeeming feature. “Bindi makes amazing steak, which is my favourite,” says Chandler. “She makes all these curry sauces and Asian sauces for the steak and then I’ll put everything away. It’s funny how life plays out.”
“I always think about that with what happened to Dad.”