Robert Irwin Reveals Warning He Gave Family Before “Spicy” DWTS Performance

One of Robert Irwin‘s Dancing With the Stars routines had his family saying, “Crikey!”

The season 34 champ revealed that his family—including mom Terri Irwin his sister Bindi Irwin—didn’t know that he would be shirtless for his dance with partner Witney Carson for the Sept. 30 TikTok Night episode.

“Surprise!” Robert joked on the Dec. 18 episode of Kylie Kelce‘s Not Gonna Lie podcast. “There was a good reason for that because, every dance that I had done, I would give my family a little preview. They would come to a rehearsal, or I’d show them a video. But then this one, there’s a point in the dance where I remove my shirt, and there’s a lot of…it’s salsa, so it’s, you know, it’s a little bit spicy…”

“I was like, I can’t show my fam, I don’t know,” he went on. “So I just went, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna go for it.’ And I said to them, ‘So this one’s a little bit edgy.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s great. Go for it.’ But then afterwards, they were like, ‘Whoa.’”

Robert Irwin, Dancing With the Stars, 2025

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Dancing With the Stars‘ Robert Irwin Shares Update on “Painful” Rib Injury After Finale

Ultimately, though, the 21-year-old, whose dad is the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, has no regrets about pushing the envelope a bit.

“You know what? Life is short. You gotta just embrace it,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. It was fun.”

Robert Irwin, Witney Carson, Dancing With the Stars, DWTS

Disney/Eric McCandless

And ultimately he was able to dance his way to Mirrorball success a decade after his sister took home the top prize.

Robert clearly has fond memories of his time on DWTS, but a rib injury in the final stretch of the competition nearly derailed his time on the show. Thankfully, though, he’s on the road to recovery.

“We’re getting there,” he shared during an appearance on Good Morning America Nov. 26. “It’s painful, but no pain, no gain.”

The wildlife conservationist gave Witney credit for altering some of her choreography to account for the pain he was experiencing during rehearsals.

“Witney was amazing at changing up some of the moves that we had to do in there,” he explained. “We had to change on the fly, but our last dance, that freestyle, was a way to say thank you to everybody who’d been on that journey.”

“I’ll heal up, mate,” Robert added. “I catch crocs, I’m used to it.”

Keep reading for more on this season of Dancing With the Stars…