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Steve Irwin’s legacy lives on.
Robert Irwin has revealed how “Dancing with the Stars” brought him closer to his late father after winning the latest season of the hit dance competition on Tuesday night.
“I feel like everything that has led me to this moment, growing up in Australia Zoo,” Robert, 21, began during an appearance on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “Continuing his legacy has now meant we’re able to write our own story, and I’m able to create my own legacy.”
“I hope in everything I do to make him proud, and I’m just so grateful that I got to live out this dream, and to do so with my new best mate,” he added regarding his “DWTS” partner, Witney Carson.
The new “DWTS” champ’s famous father died at 44 from a stingray attack while filming a documentary off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on Sept. 4, 2006. Robert was only 2 at the time, and his sister, Bindi Irwin, was 8.
But this wouldn’t be the first time Robert paid tribute to his dad since being tapped for Season 34 of the ABC dance show back in April.
Earlier this month, while celebrating the show’s 20th anniversary, the young wildlife conservationist performed a foxtrot to “Footprints in the Sand” by Leona Lewis.
Robert dedicated the dance to the late “Crocodile Hunter” host and to his older sister, who also danced a foxtrot with partner Derek Hough before winning the coveted Mirrorball Trophy during Season 21 in 2015.
“There’s a lot of weight,” Robert said at the time. “I want it to be our best dance yet, to be honest.”
“A part of me healed that day,” Bindi, 27, added after her brother’s emotional routine. “So now I hope that Robert gets that same experience.”
Elsewhere during his and Carson’s victory lap on “GMA,” Robert opened up about how his time on “DWTS” was “very healing” as he still mourns his late crocodile hunter father.
“I feel like Witney created choreography and created these stories that I could tell,” he explained, “and it kind of just tapped into emotion and vulnerability within my own journey through grief that I think also got to sort of resonate, and help others, which was really important.”
Carson, meanwhile, admitted that she felt “a lot of pressure” to help Robert uphold the Irwin family legacy and make his mom, Terri Irwin, and sister Bindi proud – especially after his major rib injury hours before the Season 34 finale.
“But our motto throughout the whole season was, ‘Pressure is a privilege,’” she told the “GMA” hosts hours after winning this year’s Mirrorball Trophy. “So we just really tried to do the best that we possibly could, and make sure that it was true to us and authentically us.”
“We just wanted to match that every single week, and that’s exactly what we did,” Carson, 32, added. “So I’m super proud of everything we’ve done.”