Terri Irwin Hilariously Recalls Moment Steve Irwin Proposed to Her While ‘All Sweaty’: ‘Let’s Do It’

Terri Irwin reveals the memorable way Steve Irwin proposed to her, sans flowers or candles.

The Australia Zoo chairwoman, 61, revealed on Australia’s Nine podcast how the late conservationist, who died at the age of 44 after a stingray attack in Sept. 2006, proposed to her after a hard days’ work.

“True to Steve, I was over for a second visit and there was a big eucalyptus tree that had been hit by lightning and killed. So we cut this tree down and it took us all day and I was utterly exhausted. And I’m sweaty and I’ve got leaves in my hair,” she recalled. 

“We sit down at the end of the day, and I was like, ‘Well we got that done,’ and my back’s killing me, and he goes, ‘So what do you reckon, you want to get married?,’ ” she added with a laugh. 

The podcast host joked that Steve was a “smooth operator,” to which Terri agreed. She noted that he pulled the whole proposal off without the extra pomp and circumstance. 

“Swear to God, I’m like, ‘I’m not seeing any rose petals or candles,’ ” said Terri. “Yeah, so [I’m] all sweaty and gross. Well, I thought of every reason I couldn’t [say yes], you know? I owned my house, my business, my friends, my family.”

“And I said, ‘Yeah. Yes, let’s do it. Let’s do it,’ ” she continued. “So he said, ‘Why don’t you live here until the wedding and then we can get married. And I said, ‘Oh I won’t live with you [until] we’re married.’ And he goes, ‘How soon can we get a wedding?’”

The Nine podcast posted a clip of the interview along with the caption, “No rose petals or candles—just a big, dead eucalyptus tree, a lot of sweat, and the question, “Do you want to get married?” The most unromantic, perfect proposal. ❤️.”

The pair wed at Terri’s grandmother’s church in Eugene, Oregon on June 4, 1992 and went on to welcome two children, Bindi, 27, and Robert, 22. 

Terri previously told PEOPLE that she and Steve had an instant connection — but he played a little hard to get when she left Australia to return home to Oregon, where she worked as a vet tech and ran an animal rehab facility called Cougar Country.

“He said, ‘We’ll have to keep in touch,’ but then a week went by and he hadn’t called, and two and three. I thought maybe I misunderstood what I thought the connection was,” Terri recalled. After a month, Steve finally called and announced, “I’m coming to Oregon to see you.” The rest was history.

She still commemorates him years after his death. In June she celebrated what would have been her 33rd wedding anniversary with Steve on Instagram alongside a photo of the couple on their wedding day.

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“Today, 33 years ago, Steve and I were married in my grandmother’s church in Oregon,” she wrote in the caption. “And it was the first day of my happily ever after.”

The American-Australian conservationist has said that she has no plans to date anyone, telling Us Weekly ahead of the 2024 Steve Irwin Gala that she already “got my happily ever after.”

“And while there are a lot of wonderful men in the world, can you see another Steve Irwin?,” she continued. “I just can’t. I’d be like, ‘I love that you’re a librarian and the Dewey Decimal System is cool, but I got to go jump a crocodile and do that.’ Forget that.”