Steve Irwin knew he was dying.
Twenty years after the beloved “Crocodile Hunter” was killed by a stingray on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the cameraman who witnessed the horrifying attack has revealed the heartbreaking final words Irwin spoke before his death.
“I’m dying.”
Those were reportedly the final two words spoken by the 44-year-old wildlife legend after a stingray barb pierced his chest near his heart on Sept. 4, 2006.
Irwin had been filming a documentary about marine life on the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Queensland, when what began as a routine wildlife shoot suddenly turned deadly.
His longtime cameraman and close friend Justin Lyons was in the water with him that day and later described the terrifying final moments in an interview with Australia’s 60 Minutes and the memorial special “Steve Irwin: A Wild Life.”
According to Lyons, the pair had been riding around in a small boat for about 10 to 15 minutes before spotting an enormous bull ray.
They had filmed stingrays countless times before and initially saw nothing unusual about the encounter.
“We’d only filmed with stingrays a hundred times before,” Lyons recalled, saying they slipped into the water and began recording the massive animal.
Eventually, the stingray settled into the sand and appeared calm.
Lyons and Irwin began planning one final shot.
Lyons said he would position himself in front of the stingray while Irwin swam behind it and over the top, giving viewers a dramatic shot of the animal.
At first, everything appeared normal.
Then, in an instant, the stingray reacted.
Lyons said the animal apparently mistook Irwin for a tiger shark as he passed above it.
The stingray began violently thrusting its tail upward.
“The water just boiled,” Lyons recalled.
Bubbles and thrashing blocked his view, leaving him unable to see exactly what was happening.
Then everything suddenly went still.
The stingray swam away.
Lyons followed it with his camera before turning back toward Irwin — and immediately realized something was terribly wrong.
Irwin burst up from the water screaming.
The water surrounding him was filling with blood.
“It’s punctured my lung!” Irwin shouted, according to Lyons.
Lyons immediately threw his camera into one of the inflatable boats and pulled Irwin aboard.
The scene was horrifying.
Irwin’s trademark khaki shirt was open, and blood was pouring from a wound in his chest directly over his heart.
Despite his catastrophic injuries, Irwin was still conscious.
Then came the moment Lyons said he would never forget.
“He looks me right in the eye and he says, ‘I’m dying,’” Lyons recalled.
Irwin died moments later.
His sudden death stunned millions of fans around the world and devastated the family he left behind — wife Terri and their two young children, Bindi and Robert.
Bindi was just 8 years old at the time. Robert was only 2.
Two decades later, Irwin remains one of Australia’s most recognizable wildlife personalities.
His fearless enthusiasm, booming voice and famous “Crikey!” catchphrase turned him into an international television star, while his work at Australia Zoo helped introduce millions of people to wildlife conservation.
Friday, Sept. 4, marked the 20th anniversary of his death, and Irwin’s family shared emotional tributes remembering the husband and father behind the larger-than-life television personality.
Bindi, now 28 and a mother herself, shared old footage of her father talking about the birth of his first child.
“The most incredible wildlife encounter of my life was the birth of my daughter, Bindi,” Steve said in the video.
Bindi accompanied the clip with an emotional message about the father she lost when she was still a child.
“Twenty years ago, today, the world lost the most passionate and dedicated wildlife conservationist,” she wrote. “Our family lost our superhero. My mum lost the love of her life; my brother and I lost the greatest dad.”
She said grief has remained part of the family’s life ever since.
“Grief never truly leaves us; we walk alongside it every day,” Bindi wrote. “Where there is enormous grief, there is even greater love.”
Bindi said she once believed her father’s greatest legacy would be wildlife conservation but has since come to see it differently.
“It turns out, his legacy is love,” she wrote. “For our planet and for each other.”
Bindi also revealed that her 5-year-old daughter regularly watches Steve’s documentaries and feels deeply connected to the grandfather she never had the chance to meet.
She affectionately calls him her “grandpa crocodile.”
“My dad left a lasting impact so poignant that it will ripple out for generations to come,” Bindi wrote. “I believe with my whole heart that his love will live on forever.”
She ended the tribute with a personal message to her father.
“Dad, I love you with my whole heart. Thank you for being our guardian angel. And most of all, thank you for watching over my daughter now, too. She loves you so much. We all do.”
Robert Irwin, now 22, also honored his father by posting a happy photograph of the two together.
“Your legacy is forever,” he wrote.
Terri Irwin shared an especially heartbreaking reflection about the final weeks she spent with her husband.
“Grief still walks with me like my shadow,” she wrote.
Terri said the family had unknowingly been given what she now views as a long goodbye.
They had spent six weeks together on a crocodile research expedition shortly before Steve’s death.
During that time, she said, Steve played with Bindi and Robert, built swings and climbed trees with them as the family enjoyed a slower pace together.
“Ours was to be a long and sweet goodbye,” Terri wrote.
She said the experience taught her something profound about losing the people we love.
“I believe that all of us, every one of us, gets to say goodbye,” she wrote. “We just may not know that we’re saying it.”
Terri ended with a message that has taken on even more meaning two decades after Steve’s sudden death.
“Hold every moment dear with the ones you love. Until we meet again.”
