Terri Irwin says son cries for his dad
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September 28, 2006 - 9:39AM
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"I want my Daddy to come. I want my Daddy to come now."
They were the heartbreaking words Steve Irwin's two-year-old son, Bob, cried soon after hearing his father had died.
"He cried for his Daddy," Irwin's wife, Terri, told American journalist Barbara Walters in an interview to be aired on US TV on Thursday night.
While his big sister, Bindi, 8, had come to terms with their father's death, Bob had not given up hope his dad might come home.
Terri said she recently discovered Bob tinkering with his father's motorbike with a screwdriver.
When Terri asked what he was doing, Bob replied: "I'm fixing the motorbike so Daddy can drive it from heaven."
The Walters interview, to be broadcast on America's ABC TV network, is expected to be watched by more than 10 million viewers.
ABC will air it following two of the network's highest rated programs, Dancing with the Stars and Lost.
Americans will hear how Terri gently broke the news to Bob, 2, and daughter Bindi, 8, that their father had died in a stingray attack on the Great Barrier Reef.
"I told Bindi 'In life you steel yourself for things that go wrong," Terri, fighting back tears, said.
"And I said 'When something goes wrong you have to have faith and you have to believe it can be a new chapter and that we can go on'.
"And I said 'We are still a family. Daddy still loves you and we have to stay together and get each other through this'."
Terri and her children were holidaying in a remote area of Tasmania on September 4 when her brother-in-law called with the life-changing news her husband had died.
"Bindi was OK until Robert woke up," Terri told Walters.
"Robert asked me twice what happened and I explained it to him. It took him longer to get his mind around it.
"He cried for his Daddy: 'I want my Daddy to come. I want my Daddy to come now'.
"I'm OK until my kids cry.
"But, you know, I'm very resolute in making sure these kids remember their father and are proud of their father and that they celebrate their father however they choose."
The world watched as Bindi, without shedding a tear, spoke at her father's memorial at Australia Zoo last week.
Walters, admiring how calmly the eight-year-old spoke, asked Terri if Bindi fully understood her father had died.
"Absolutely, she understands," Terri responded.
"She always understood because living at a zoo, animals die.
"She has seen death. She knows what death is.
"She said I want to be at the memorial and say something about my Daddy."
Terri, however, said she was unable to speak at the memorial.
"I couldn't," Terri said.
"It's hard now.
"I'm really trying, but I've lost my prince.
"I've lost my prince."
Terri added she still cries, although she tries not to in front of her children.
"They've seen me cry, but there are times when I weep," Terri said.
"I usually weep alone."
Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again. JL Picard