Steve Irwin shot to fame as an animal lover, earning the title of The Crocodile Hunter thanks to his daring exploits with crocs and ‘gators.
But, when a stingray barb pierced his heart in 206, the dad-of-two tragically lost his life.
He was just 44-years-old.
Despite an unwritten pact, which vowed never to expose Steve’s dying moments to the public, cameraman Justin Lyons went on Australian television last year to speak about the Crocodile Hunter’s final moments.
Explaining that he had watched Steve get stabbed ‘hundreds of times’ by a stingray, and his battle to keep him alive as they raced the TV presenter to shore, he said: "It's a jagged barb and it went through his chest like hot butter."
He continued: “He had a two-inch-wide injury over his heart with blood and fluid coming out of it and we had to get him back to the boat as fast as we can
“He obviously didn't know it had punctured his heart ... even if we had got him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably we wouldn't have been able to save him.
"I was saying to him things like 'think of your kids Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on', and he calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying' and that was the last thing he said."
But the wildlife presenter's father Bob, said yesterday: “I personally felt very sad and to a degree angry about what Justin had to say.
“For a lot of people trying to get on with their lives without Steve, it wasn’t something that helped by any means.”
Last year, Steve’s daughter Bindi, 16, told People magazine that those who told her "time heals all wounds" were wrong.
"That is the biggest lie you will ever hear. It doesn't," she said.
"That kind of sadness never goes away. It's like losing a piece of your heart that you never get back."