Steve Irwin describing moment he met wife Terri while animal was 'trying to kill him' has people in tears

Steve Irwin fans have been left in tears after watching resurfaced footage of the zookeeper talking about how he met his wife, Terri.

Most fans of the Irwin family will probably know that Steve and Terri built up the Australia Zoo together after they met, and from there they continued to grow their family by welcoming two children, Bindi and Robert.

The website for the Australia Zoo explains that it was 'love at first sight' for Steve and Terri, and they tied the knot in 1992.

The couple enjoyed more than a decade of marriage before Steve was tragically killed by a stingray in 2006.

But footage of him continues to resonate with his fans, many of who grew up in awe of the zookeeper on his show Crocodile Hunter.

And this week, footage of Steve was shared on Reddit after being taken from one of his episodes.

In the clip, the dad-of-two can be heard gushing over Terri, who had been living in Oregon, US when she went to Australia and visited Steve's park.

Steve Irwin took over the Australia Zoo in 1991.

Animal Planet

He recalls spotting her in a crowd of people in the zoo, saying: "I looked up and our eyes met, and my heart just went 'bang bang bang bang', it just started thumping. It was love at first sight."

Steve admitted that his description of the moment might sound like it came from a 'love novel', but continued: "It's true!"

He was totally distracted by the woman in front of him, but was quickly forced to pay attention again when he remembered he was doing a demonstration with one of the zoo's crocodiles, named Agro, at the time.

Steve recalled: "Next thing, 'woah!' I remembered where I was. Agro's trying to kill me."

The zookeeper was clearly unable to stay focused on the giant reptile he was working with, so he quickly wound up the demonstration and struck up a conversation with Terri.

Steve Irwin was doing a crocodile demonstration when he saw Terri.

Animal Planet

Thankfully, the connection Steve felt with Terri wasn't one-sided.

In her own recollection of the events, Terri admitted she was quickly 'sold' on Steve, saying: "I thought, 'this man is the most incredible guy I've ever seen. He's probably married, he's got to be taken'."

But of course, as we know now, he wasn't.

Steve said the love between the pair went 'ballistic' after they first met, and after having developed some of her own animal care skills further as a vet technician at an emergency veterinary hospital, Terri married Steve and began to work at the zoo.

After watching the pair remember their first meeting, one adoring Reddit user admitted they were 'full on ugly crying at work', while another described the Irwins as 'absolutely top notch humans'.

"Not me crying just seeing this clip (he really was THE role model)" someone else said.