Robert Irwin opens up about his grief over his dad Steve with CNN journalist Anderson Cooper

Robert Irwin has opened up about finding strength while grieving his dad Steve and how he’s able to still “feel” the Crocodile Hunter, 20 years after his death.

The wildlife warrior, 22, recalled how he embraced “good” pain while walking his sister Bindi down the aisle at her 2020 wedding to Chandler Powell.

“There have been times in my life where there’s like certain moments that it just hits you and you just like, oof,” he told CNN podcast All There Is With Anderson Cooper.

“And I know for me, like one of those moments was when my sister got married. Because she always planned on my dad, obviously, walking her down the aisle.

“I walked her down the aisle, and I remember feeling like this isn’t my job, and there’s this weird sort of imposter syndrome, but I was like, this is what’s going on.

“I almost felt a responsibility, it was like this is what dad was supposed to be doing. So I got to make the most of it. I got to do this for him. I need to enjoy this for him.

“I remember walking her down the aisle, and that night I dumped so much emotion. I was just sitting in my backyard on the ground, just dumping so much emotion. I think because, yeah, there are these little moments that you just go oof.”

Robert described his grief as “crazy”.

“Isn’t it crazy how that pain can feel, it sounds so weird, but it can feel so good when you’re actually embracing it. When you’re letting it kind of hit you. Not detrimentally, but you’re letting it in, and you’re feeling it,” he said.

Robert, who won the 2025 season of Dancing With The Stars in America, said he always feels closest to his dad when he’s in the outback and told a story of feeling his “warmth” when capturing a wild crocodile on a research expedition.

He described the moment as “one of the most beautiful things” and “really special”.

“It was my first time doing what’s called the team lead of a capture. And to be team leader on a research expedition is a very big deal,” he said.

“It’s like a rite of passage. I’m nervous, my heart is pounding. We do the capture and this bloke put me through it. He’s death rolling. Head shaking, a couple of really close calls on my behalf.”

As Robert went to attach a satellite tracker to the beast, he noticed a “very distinct marking in one of his scales” and that the croc had been tracked before.

“It was a crocodile that my dad had caught 20 years ago. And the craziest bit is, we managed to use satellite technology to figure it out, and we caught him in the exact same spot that he did on an expedition completely randomly 20 years back.

“And I’m sitting, I’m laying on this croc and I feel his breath on my face. And I’m looking at this guy and he’s looking at me and he’s probably thinking, these bloody Irwins.”

Robert said he felt like his dad was with him in that moment helping to guide him on his first time leading the research team.

Another way the young legend feels connected to Steve — who married Terri on June 4 1992 — is through riding his dad’s old red motorcycle around Australia Zoo.

He said as a toddler, he would always associate his dad with the motorcycle that he used to ride around on, and the little Irwin felt lost when he stopped hearing the roar of the engine.

“Whatever I was doing, I would hear the motorbike, and I’d be like that’s him, and I remember like when that all stopped, I remember being so confused,” he said.

“When I was about three to four, I spent almost a year- having no idea how to fix a motorcycle- every day with dad’s tools at his motorbike, trying to fix his motorbike, going, I need to get this thing running again so that he can come and start riding it again. Like what’s going on, you know?”

Robert eventually restored the bike as an adult.

“I ride it every single day. And now it’s, when I get on that motorbike, I’m like, hell yeah.”