Terri Irwin has given an emotional interview where she admits there are still times when “she feels like she could walk around the corner of Australia Zoo and her late husband, Steve, would be walking towards her wearing his signature khaki uniform”.
While chatting with The Courier-Mail, the 57-year-old widow opened up about her “very, very, very single” status and her past relationship with the world-famous crocodile hunter, who died in 2006 at the age of 44, after encountering a stingray off the coast of Northern Australia. Terri has recaptured the early days of their romance back in 1991, when the couple first laid eyes on each other during her first visit to the zoo “rocking a bitchin’ perm, look there’s no other word for it, it was bitching’”, and locked eyes with young Steve Irwin (rocking his own bitching’ mullet), fell in love and married”.
“I don’t think love ever goes away,” Terri told the newspaper on Sunday, November 21. “I see Steve and his love for his family all the time. I saw it when Bindi had Grace, I see him in Grace.”
“But here’s the thing, you know if Steve were physically here, I probably wouldn’t see Grace for dust. He’d be off with her in his arms showing her all the animals and the trees and the flowers and the sky just like he did with our kids.’’
“I’d be left behind for sure,’’ she laughed.
In the frank conversation, Terri explains that she’s alright being on her own and is “too busy” to look for love.
“I think when you become a young widow, it can be uncomfortable for other couples, that whole, ‘Oh well, now she’s single, is she looking around?’ And my male friends are more comfortable, they can see I’m not chasing them,” she said. “I’m too busy to chase anybody.”
Despite the ever-growing list of her rumoured lovers- Richard Wilkins, Russell Crowe, and more recently Hollywood star John Travolta- Terri is, in her words, “very, very, very single”.
“But you know, and I keep saying this, and I think maybe 15 years later people are finally starting to believe me, Steve was it for me. That’s just the way it is. I had a big, big love and it was enough to last a lifetime,” she says.
Earlier this month, Terri’s two children Bindi, 23, and Robert,17, continued to honour their father’s legacy by celebrating Steve Irwin Day.
The tell-all interview comes as speculation continues to mount about the financial battles facing Australia Zoo, in the wake of Covid-19, and the possible closure of one of the country’s most beloved tourism treasures. There have also been recent reports circulating that Irwin was exploring the idea of selling the site.