Robert Irwin has opened up about his grief journey and moments where he feels the most connected to his father, the late Steve Irwin.
The 22-year-old wildlife conservationist was only two when his father passed away.
In his latest appearance on the All There Is with Anderson Cooper podcast on Tuesday, he became emotional as he revealed that he still seeks advice from his dad.
“I’m always closest to dad when I’m in the middle of nowhere, you know, when I’m out in the bush,” he said while holding back tears.
“There are absolutely moments where I’ll be hit with this sense of – it’s warmth, it’s like something kind of wraps around me … and I will absolutely sit and just say, ‘How do I go forward? How do you move forward?’”
He added that being in the public eye and regularly asked about his father made him a “constant thread” in his life, but it also made his grief journey slightly more complicated.
“Sometimes, one of the nicest things is to kind of just let it all go,” he said.
“I let it all sort of pour out, and it feels like I’m kind of letting him in. And sometimes I just sit and go, ‘What’s next? How do I put one foot in front of the other?’ And there’s no answer, but it almost feels like there’s a resolution that comes out of that.”
“You need to check in every now and again,” he continued.
“There are these checkpoints that I find throughout life where you’re going through the motions, and then sometimes something will just hit you, and you need to just step away,” he added.
“You need to let loose. You need to go, ‘OK, I need to refocus on what is my grief journey.’”
Robert admitted that he feels his father’s presence the most during his conservation projects, especially when he would work with crocodiles.
He referenced the most recent crocodile research expedition that he led in Northern Australia, and how he was tagging and releasing the same reptile as his father tagged 20 years earlier.
“We managed to use satellite technology to figure it out, and we caught him in the exact same spot that he did,” Robert said.
“I’m laying on this croc and I feel his breath on my face. I’m looking at this guy, and he’s looking at me, and he’s probably thinking, ‘These bloody Irwins.’”
He added that the moment felt like a sign from his father, that he was watching over him.
“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.’”
Robert added that certain items have also become “conduits” to his father, like the motorbike Steve used to ride around Australia Zoo, which he repaired and uses every day.
“[That] repaired a lot of the pieces that were bringing me down, figuratively and literally,” he said.
Images: Instagram
