TIME HASN’T HEALED CROC HUNTER’S KIDS!
Brave Robert & Bindi still miss dad Steve 12 years after tragedy
THE courageous kids of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin are proudly keeping his legacy alive while still being haunted and heartbroken by his tragic death in the waters off Australia.
“They still mourn his loss deeply, and that grief will never go away,” reveals an insider.
Bindi, 20, and Robert, 15, were eight and two years old when their dad — world famous for capturing and handling crocodiles, snakes and other dangerous critters — died. He was filming a giant stingray along the Great Barrier Reef when the animal got spooked and fatally stung him in the chest repeatedly on Sept. 4, 2006.
More than a dozen years later, Bindi’s still grappling with grief.
“I remember people coming up to me and saying, ‘I’m sorry for your loss, sweetheart. Time heals all wounds,’” she says.
“But that’s just not true. It’s like losing a part of your heart, and when you’ve lost that, you never get it back.”
Adds the insider: “She hates it when people belittle her grief — that really gets her mad!
“Robert was too little to remember much of Steve, but Bindi still cries when she thinks of the tender things her dad used to do, like wiping her runny nose with his shirt sleeve or telling her a bedtime story about a gentle giant creature of the deep sea.
“There’s not a day that she doesn’t think of him and miss him.”
But Robert’s had to grow up without a father.
“He’s 15 and will never know what it was like to do those father-son things,” notes the source. “It’s just going to get harder as he gets older.”
Still, the kids have shouldered the burden of keeping Steve’s memory alive, working at Australia Zoo and spreading his animal-loving message through the nonprofit conservation group Wildlife Warriors and their Animal Planet series, Crikey! It’s the Irwins.
Steve’s spirit lives on
Meanwhile, their mom, Terri, has tried her best. Pals say it’s been tough because she’s grieving, too.
To Bindi and the world, Steve was a larger-than-life figure who tracked and captured wild creatures, often with his bare hands.
“Bindi was her daddy’s girl, and she’s a lot like Steve,” spills the insider. “She has his adventurous spirit and loves to work with the animals at the zoo.”
Helping her find comfort and love is her fiancé, Chandler Powell, 22, a pro wakeboarder she met while giving a tour of the zoo in 2013. He recently moved in with Bindi and her family.
She’s sad Steve won’t be there to “give her away at their wedding,” says the insider.
“He reminds her of her dad — he’s sweet and not afraid of anything,” adds the insider. “She knows Steve would have loved him.”
And she believes her and Robert’s work with wildlife makes her dad proud.
“I hope somewhere he’s out there going, ‘Yes! You did good!’” Bindi says.