Robert Irwin holds back tears after seeing father Steve’s wax figure

Steve Irwin’s son Robert was left visibly emotional as he attended the unveiling of his new waxwork at Madame Tussauds Sydney.

The 20-year-old has followed in his late father’s footsteps as a conservationist and zookeeper and was left visibly emotional at seeing his dad’s likeness in the same room.

Steve, an Australian television personality and wildlife expert, died at the age of 44 on September 4 2006, when a stingray hit him in the chest with its barbed tail, piercing his heart. He had been shooting a documentary called Ocean’s Deadliest.

Robert was two-years-old at the time.

“That is amazing. It’s the first time in a long time that he’s not just a picture,” he said, fighting back tears in the video posted by news.com.au.

The TV personality was attending the unveiling of his own waxwork, which will be displayed in the same room as his father’s. According to Sunrise, he is the youngest Australian celebrity to be featured in Madame Tussauds Sydney.

“It was the first time I’d ever gotten to see my dad’s wax figure. I’d seen pictures of it, but I’d never seen it in real life,” he told the channel.

“I was overcome with emotion. And I didn’t think that was going to happen, but I was actually quite emotional seeing it.

“Dad, for the last 17 years of my life, has been pictures and video, and to actually see him kind of just standing there, it was a lot. It was actually a lot to take in.”

He also explained why he picked a Woma python to be a part of the display, “This is actually a special snake and actually one of my very favourite animals,” he began.

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“I absolutely love these guys and it seemed very fitting, with this section that we’ve got here, this display because this is an animal that was my dad’s favourite.

“And he actually went out and secured an area of about 118,000 acres of land that he set aside as a natural preserve for Woma pythons, because they’re endangered in a lot of their range. And that actually started our journey with buying up conservation land, this was way back in the Nineties.”

Social media users were left moved as one page wrote, “Who’s cutting onions?”