Irwin ‘had strong conviction he would die early’

CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin always felt he would die early but that it would be a car wreck, not an animal, that killed him, the widow of the daredevil TV star and conservationist said yesterday.

In her first interview since Irwin died from the jab of a stingray on September 4, Terri Irwin said her husband had an uncanny way with animals that both of them believed would keep him safe as he caught crocodiles, snatched up snakes and played with other dangerous beasts.

“I never thought it would be an animal, he never thought it would be an animal,” Terri Irwin said in the interview with Australia’s Nine Network.

“I thought he would fall out of a tree, he thought it would be a car accident.”

Asked by interviewer Ray Martin if Irwin believed he would die early, Terri said, “he had a very strong conviction that he would. To the point where I’m grateful in a way, because we’re prepared”.

Irwin, 44, died minutes after a stingray’s barb pierced his chest while he filmed a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef. His death prompted an unprecedented outpouring of grief in Australia and among millions of fans of his television show Crocodile Hunter.

Terri Irwin, originally from Eugene, Oregon, has spoken publicly only twice since her husband’s death, her second interview was with ABC television’s Barbara Walters. The Walters interview was due to air last night in the United States.

Terri Irwin said she has not seen the film of her husband’s deadly encounter with a stingray and that it will never be shown on television.

“What purpose would that serve?” Terri Irwin said in the Walters interview, according to excerpts released in advance by ABC.

Irwin’s friend and business partner, John Stainton, has seen the film of his death. He told Ms Walters he never wants to see it again and does not want anyone else to see it. “It’s just a horrible piece of film tape,” he said.

Terri Irwin was on a trip in Australia’s southern Tasmania state with the couple’s two children — eight-year-old daughter Bindi and two-year-old son Bob — when her brother-in-law reached her with the news.

“I remember thinking, ‘don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it’,” she said.

“I looked out the window, and Bindi was skipping, skipping along outside the window. And I thought, ‘oh, my children. He wouldn’t have wanted to leave the children.” And I knew it was an accident. It was an accident so stupid. It was like running with a pencil.”

She said it is important for her family to continue the work her husband did in teaching the world about wildlife.

She told Ms Walters she is getting through her grief “one minute at a time”.