Nearly 17 years after Steve Irwin’s sudden death, the conservationist’s son Robert honors him with a heartfelt tribute.
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In his recent Instagram post, Robert shared an incredibly sweet picture of him and Steve Irwin driving in a car. He then posted a picture of him actually driving the vehicle. “My dad’s ute… it’s a special car,” Robert shared in the caption. “From early memories when Dad would park and let me pretend to drive, to more recently when I took my drivers test in it (and somehow managed not to stall it).”
Robert then recalled his first solo drive in his father’s car right after he got his license. It was to meet his niece, Grace Warrior Irwin Powell. “And now, the ute still comes on road trips to this day…”
Robert was only two years old when Steve Irwin passed away after he was stung by a stingray. The conservationist was 44 years old at the time of his death. Years later, Robert is following in Steve’s footsteps and is now a conservationist as well.
Robert Irwin Says His Life Goal Is to Always Make His Father Steve Proud
In a 2021 interview with Esquire, Robert Irwin spoke about how his main life goal is to always make his father Steve proud.
“I hope in every aspect of my life that I can make him proud, and made sure that his message never dies,” Robert explained. He also discussed why getting into the documentary space will help get his father’s message out more.
“I want to have an even bigger voice to make sure that that message never ever dies,” he continued. He said his father didn’t care if people remembered him. Steve was more concerned about everyone remembering his message. “And I want to make sure that continues forever.”
When asked if he watches interactive videos of his father, Robert declared all the time. “Especially when I was younger. I remember, actually, every day, every morning, before school, this was when I was really doing.”
Instead of watching cartoons in the morning, Robert said that he and his sister Bindi would always want to watch documentaries of their dad working with animals. “I absolutely loved that so much and it really made me feel close to him.”
Robert went on to explain that he feels very lucky to have so much of his dad captured on camera. He added that whenever a moment starts to fade or whenever he starts to forget something about his father, he can look back at all this old footage. “It completely sparks these memories. I’ll go, ‘I remember that moment, I remember when we were there!’ And I feel very lucky.”
