Robert Irwin has nothing but love for his sister, Bindi.
The son of famed wildlife conservationist, television personality, and educator Steve Irwin took to Instagram to show off his new baby niece, Grace Warrior, and celebrate his sister for National Siblings Day.
He captioned the pic with the words, “Happy #NationalSiblingsDay! I’ve got the absolute best sister – Grace definitely has an amazing mum ?”
Sharing the love
Bindi, 22, also went onto social media to send some love out to her little brother.
She said, “I’m thankful every day that I get to be your sister. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend and light in my life. #Flashback #NationalSiblingsDay.”
Bindi married longtime beau Chandler Powell in early 2019 in an intimate ceremony with immediate family and no wedding guests due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A small and intimate ceremony
The bride took to social media to announce the wedding and share her sorrow that it couldn’t have more loved-ones in attendance.
“We held a small ceremony and I married my best friend. There are no words to describe the amount of love and light in my heart right now. We’ve planned this beautiful day for nearly a year and had to change everything, as we had no guests at our wedding. This was a very difficult decision but important to keep everyone safe. We wish all of our friends and family could have been there with us; however, it’s lovely that we will be able to share photos and videos. Right now, we’re encouraging the world to hold onto hope and love, which will carry us forward during this profound time in history. Today we celebrated life and reveled in every beautiful moment we shared together in our Australia Zoo gardens. Mum helped me get ready, Robert walked me down the aisle, Chandler became my husband and together we lit a candle in dad’s memory. We shared tears and smiles and love. Thankfully, since we all live at Australia Zoo as a family, we could be there for each other.”
She concluded her post by saying, “To everyone reading this – stay safe, social distance, and remember LOVE wins!”
The pair lost their father in a freak accident in 2006. Steve Irwin was filming a documentary in Queensland’s Batt Reef when he spotted a huge stingray in the water and decided to hop in to take a closer look. As Irwin and his cameraman, Justin Lyons, captured the moments as Irwin swam behind the ray, the animal seemed to get spooked suddenly and started jabbing its stinger out.
Lyons talked to Australia’s morning show Studio 10 in 2014 about the horrible events that transpired that day.
“Stingrays are normally very calm. If they don’t want you around them, they’ll swim away — they’re very fast swimmers,” Lyons said. “All of a sudden, (the stingray) propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds. It probably thought Steve’s shadow was a tiger shark, who feeds on them pretty regularly, so it started to attack him.”
When Lyons looked back to take stock of the situation he saw a pool of blood circling around Steve in the water and knew something awful had occurred. Irwin was pronounced dead on the scene.