Robert Irwin Gets Emotional While Talking About When He Feels Closest To His Late Father

When it comes to grief, it's important to remember a few widely accepted truths: Everyone's grieving process is different. Grieving is not linear and can occur at unexpected times. And grief is love that has nowhere else to go.

While appearing on Anderson Cooper's podcast, All There Is, which focuses on the tough, unspoken parts of the grieving process, Robert Irwin opened up about his connection with his late father, Steve Irwin, and when he feels closest to him.

After Cooper asked him if he talked to his dad, Irwin reflected:

"I always feel closest to Dad when I'm in the middle of nowhere."

"I’ll be hit with this sense of... it’s warmth."

"It’s like something kind of wraps around me."

He went on:

"And I will absolutely sit and just say, ‘How do I go forward?’ You know? How do you move forward?"

"As a young guy in the public eye, going through all of the motions that we go through, being scrutinized so much, and my dad always being this constant thread in my life, and people always talking about him..."

"Sometimes one of the nicest things is to kind of just let it all go. I let it all pour out, and then it feels like I'm kind of letting him in."

"Sometimes I'll sit and just go, 'What's next? How do I put one foot in front of the other?'"

"And there's no answer, but it almost feels like there's a resolution that comes out of that."

"There are moments that feel like he's trying to say something."

At times what Irwin felt his father saying to him was more tangible than others, like when he captured the same crocodile his father had tagged 20 years ago.

Irwin reflected:

"We do the capture and this bloke put me through it. He’s death rolling, head shaking, couple of really close calls on my behalf."

"While I’m sitting there laying on this crocodile, there’s this very distinct marking in one of his scales, and I just had this little epiphany.”

“It was a crocodile that my dad had caught 20 years ago, and the craziest bit is, we managed to use satellite technology to figure it out, and we caught him in the exact same spot that he did."

"It felt like that was Dad being like, ‘This is your first time leading the team. You’re on the right track. Here’s a little sign.’ It felt like that to me.”

You can watch the segment here:

Viewers were touched by Irwin's honesty.

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You can watch Anderson Cooper's full conversation with Robert Iwin on All There Is here:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

It's wonderful that Irwin has figured out a way to let the love and connection of his father in, and the results are just beautiful.