The wildlife presenter died in 2006 after being stabbed by a stingray while filming a documentary series - and his underwater cameraman, Justin Lyons, was the only person to witness those final moments.
Now, in a moving interview with Network Ten's Studio 10 show, Justin has opened up about Steve irwin's death for the very first time.
He explained: "Stingrays are normally very calm - if they don’t want you to be near them, they’ll swim away.
"We stood up and said, ‘One last shot. You swim up from behind the animal and I’ll try to get a shot of it swimming away'.
"All of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.
"I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away - I didn’t even know it had caused any damage. It wasn’t until I panned the camera back and Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something was wrong."
He also insisted that, contrary to reports at the time, Steve did NOT try and remove the barb, saying: "The stingray barb was a blade of about a foot extending out of the tail. Steve didn’t pull it out; it’s a jagged, sharp barb and it went through Steve’s chest like a hot knife through butter."
VIDEO: Watch Steve's wife Terri Irwin give her first TV interview following her husband's death:
Explaining that Steve was in extreme pain when they dragged him above water and on to the boat, Justin said that they "hoped for a miracle" - but attempts to save the wildlife presenter were futile:
"We assessed the situation for about five seconds. He had a two-inch injury over his heart with blood coming out of it.
"He was in extraordinary pain - they've got a venom on their barb, so I knew it must've been painful.
"He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, ‘I’m dying’. And that was the last thing he said… We hoped for a miracle. I did CPR on him for over an hour before the medics came, but then they pronounced him dead within 10 seconds of looking at him."
The footage of his death has been a source of controversy since 2006, but Irwin always insisted the cameras must always stay rolling regardless of any accident or ordeal.
Justin Lyons, however, insists that, out of respect for Steve's wife Terri, he would never want to see the footage aired: "Out of respect for everyone, for his family, I would say never. I don't know what's happened to it… but it will never see the light of day hopefully."
Do you agree with Justin Lyons? Were you touched by his account of Steve Irwin's death? Are you glad that the video of his final moments will never be seen by the public? Let us know in the Comments Box below now.