Bindi Irwin reveals the sweet reason why she decide to not take her husband's last name

Photo / Instagram

Photo / Instagram

Bindi Irwin is keeping her surname to honour her late father Steve Irwin.

The 21-year-old conservationist married Chandler Powell earlier this year, but has said she won’t be taking his surname to become Bindi Powell, because she wants to continue to "feel close" to her father Steve, who passed away in 2006 when he was pierced in the heart by a stingray barb whilst filming a documentary.

She explained: "I've kept Bindi Irwin. I think that for me personally, after Dad passed away it was really important for me to feel close to him, and having his last name means so much to me."

In fact, Bindi hinted that Chandler - who now lives with Bindi, her mother Terri and her brother Robert at Australia Zoo - could even take her surname to officially become an Irwin instead.

She added to Entertainment Tonight: "Chandler has become an Irwin now. It has become a part of me. Everyone has their own ideas, but the nice thing is that it's 2020 now, anything works!”

Bindi and Chandler married in April, but were unable to have guests at their wedding because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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Family forever. ❤️

A post shared by Bindi Irwin (@bindisueirwin) on

Instead, they tied the knot in front of Bindi’s family at Australia Zoo, where they kept the memory of Steve - who was also known as the Crocodile Hunter - alive by holding the nuptials themselves in an area that was "special" to him.

Bindi said of her wedding: "Where we got married was such a special place to dad. It's a beautiful little area where he had filmed for many years. It felt really wonderful and just meant to be.

"We had dad's picture with his dog Sui blown up on an easel. So mom and Robert were standing right next to dad as we exchanged vows. We had a candle-lighting ceremony for him, and it really felt like he was there with us. It was a lovely moment of peace and happiness."

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This moment. My favourite wedding day photograph. This isn’t the fairytale image capturing the ‘perfect’ wedding day feeling. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This picture was taken after we had to change our entire wedding. We decided not to have wedding guests due to the global crisis for everyone’s health and safety. Our family and friends couldn’t be there to celebrate with us. However, they all encouraged us to continue on and get married. From their love and support, we felt love win. We changed our wedding date the night before we got married but we were determined to let love win. Everything from the cake to the flowers were different. Thankfully, we worked with local businesses to make it happen. They helped love win. On our wedding day we were finally about to get married and the paparazzi flew over us in a helicopter scaring our wildlife. We had to leave our stunning wedding venue on the African Savannah for their safety. I said goodbye to the place I had dreamed of getting married for so many years. At that moment I remembered the filming barn where I’d spent much of my life with my family working on Crocodile Hunter and Bindi The Jungle Girl. I knew we could make it work and our zoo crew helped us to move everything inside. I watched love win. I was there in my wedding dress, husband-to-be by my side, moving tables and flowers and trying to make our day finally become a reality. At one point I sat on a chair in the corner doing my best not to think about how overwhelming things seemed. I missed the people who couldn’t be there, my dad, Chandler’s family, our dear friends, my family. Chandler stopped what he was doing and sat next to me. I asked him to list me happy things. He proceeded to remind me that love ALWAYS wins. That’s when this picture was taken. Despite everything, we got married and I’ll forever be grateful. Sure, things weren’t perfect but that’s life. Life is messy and beautiful and meant to be felt. We were overcoming great obstacles to prove that unconditional love is the most important foundation. Our wedding day wasn’t what we planned but it was an extraordinary starting point for our marriage to bloom. ❤️

A post shared by Bindi Irwin (@bindisueirwin) on

- Bang! Showbiz

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