'Dad Would Be So Proud Of You': Robert Irwin Will Walk Sister Bindi Down The Aisle

The pair appeared on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’ to talk wedding plans

Robert and Bindi Irwin joined Kelly Clarkson on her new talk show this week and the discussion quickly turned to Bindi’s upcoming nuptials next year. The pair talked about the big day and what it means for him to be able to walk his sister down the aisle. You might want to grab a box of tissues, fair warning.

The 15-year-old Robert and his sister, 21, made an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, and when Clarkson asked who’d be walking Bindi down the aisle, her little brother said he was “touched” to have been asked to do so. The pair joked that perhaps one of their exotic animals could also be involved and Bindi joked, “Maybe both? Maybe Robert and a koala could walk me down the aisle.”

Robert, a fellow wildlife conservationist, was also insisting the animals be involved. “We’ve got to have animals involved somehow,” he joked, given the wedding will be held on the grounds of the family’s Australia Zoo.

Of course, noticeably absent on Bindi’s big day will be her late father, Steve Irwin, who we all knew and loved as the Crocidile Hunter and died in 2006 while filming for an upcoming show. His loss has been felt profoundly by the world, and his children have continued his conservation work ever since.

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“I was so incredibly touched when Bindi said, ‘Robert, would you walk me down the aisle?'” he recalled to Clarkson. “I know dad would be so proud of you,” he then said to Bindi. “We all love you so much. You’re achieving so much.”

Bindi has been open on social media about her excitement for the big day and the absence they’ll all feel when it arrives not having her dad present. When she announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend and professional wakeboarder, Chander Powell, she wrote, “Dad, You would be so incredibly proud of Robert. He has been such an amazing support during this beautiful new life chapter. I know you’d be beaming with pride when the time comes that he walks me down the aisle.”

“I’m always so grateful that Robert is there, and he has been such a big part of my life and he’s always stepped up and been the one to give me a hug when I need it and encourage me forward in life,” Bindi told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year. “So he will definitely be the one to walk me down the aisle when the time comes, and I think that will make it really special.”

She added, “I think that’s what dad would have wanted as well.”