Bindi Irwin celebrated what would have been her dad Steve Irwin’s 63rd birthday on Saturday with a heartwarming childhood photo of the two of them. Australia’s famous Crocodile Hunter died nearly two decades ago, and Bindi is just as much a loving daddy’s girl as she always was.
“Happy Birthday, Dad,” the You Are a Wildlife Warrior author wrote on Instagram. “To the world, you will forever be remembered as the greatest Wildlife Warrior. To me, you’ll always be the most incredible dad and now our family’s guiding light.” Aww!
“I love you and I miss you every day,” she added.
She also shared a gut-wrenching photo of herself as a young girl kissing her dad on the cheek. Irwin smiles with his eyes closed as Bindi wraps her arms around her dad’s neck. It’s such a sweet moment that highlights just how much she loves her dad. (Are you crying as much as we are?)
Bindi’s mom Terri Irwin, who shares Bindi and son Robert with Steve, commented, “Steve loved being a dad best of all! ❤️”
“Love lives forever..♥️ Happy heavenly birthday Steve 💫🌟✨” someone else commented. Another wrote, “🐊Happy birthday, crocodile hunter🐊Steve Irwin! Your fabulous legacy lives on with your beautiful, adventurous family!!!!🙏”
Steve tragically died at 44 years old in 2006, when Bindi and Robert were just 8 and 2. In an interview with A Life of Greatness podcast earlier this month, Bindi vulnerably recalled one way people tried to cheer her up after her dad’s death: by saying, “time heals all wounds.”
“And I remember thinking, as an 8-year-old, ‘What in the heck does that mean? Why do people keep telling me like, one day I’ll forget about this?’” she shared.
“It actually made me a little bit scared,” she continued, adding, “Time changes your grief. Time changes things and your perspective and everything. But I know firsthand that the grief and the sadness and the feeling of loss from losing Dad, that feeling is just a part of me. It’s like a scar on your heart.”
But now, Bindi gets to teach her daughter Grace, 3, all about her dad. “Oh man, [Dad] would love [her]. She is so much like him, it’s a little scary,” Bindi said on a Dec. 2024 interview on the In Real Life with Ellie & Ross podcast. “She has so much fire and passion and energy in such a teeny tiny little body. I don’t know where it fits! They would be so similar, and, ah, it would just be fun to watch them play.”
And in a way, Grace does get to play with her “Grandpa Crocodile.” “She gets so excited to watch Grandpa Crocodile,” Bindi added. “She started doing the ‘Crikey!’s and the ‘danger, danger, danger!’ like jumping on the plush crocs, and it’s so cute to watch her.”
Before you go, click here to see Bindi Irwin’s sweetest mommy milestones!
