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Bindi Irwin Honors What Would Have Been Her Late Father Steve Irwin’s 61st Birthday

By Margherita Cole on February 24, 2023

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It has been 17 years since Steve Irwin's unexpected death. The Australian conservationist and TV personality won hearts around the world with his fearless love for all animals, a trait that he passed onto his children Bindi and Robert. On February 22, 2023, Bindi made a touching tribute to her father on what would have been his 61st birthday.

“Happy Birthday, Dad. Thank you for instilling a love for all species, courage to follow my heart and determination to make a difference in the world for wildlife and wild places. Your legacy lives on and the world is forever changed because of your dedication to conservation. Mum, Robert and I love and miss you so much,” Bindi writes. The emotional message was accompanied by a photograph of Bindi as a young child looking over her father's shoulder at a lizard he is holding.

Bindi was 8 years old when Steve died from a stingray barb to his chest in 2006. He was working on a children's nature series called Bindi the Jungle Girl at the time. Since Steve's passing, Bindi has carried on his legacy through her own activism. “We had no idea how many lives Dad touched through his conservation work; I know for a fact that Dad had no idea,” she said on the podcast What About Death. “And it wasn't until he passed away that we were hit with this wave—this tsunami of love and kindness and people sharing their own stories and telling us about how that affected their lives.”

Robert, Steve's son, was only 2 years old when his father passed. Although they didn't get much time together, he follows in his dad's footsteps with his work at the Australia Zoo. On his father's birthday, Robert shared a sweet photo of himself as a baby being carried by Steve, accompanied by a short birthday message, “Happy birthday, dad.”