Bindi & Chandler Love Always Wins

It wasn’t the wedding celebration they planned, but when Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell exchanged vows in a private ceremony, it was the best day of their lives, writes Juliet Rieden.

- Juliet Rieden

Their wedding was supposed to happen on April 4; a huge celebration which Bindi had been planning ever since Chandler proposed on her 21st birthday on July 24 last year, when he pulled a diamond ring from his pocket and went down on one knee. Bindi’s brother Robert was in on the surprise and watching on from behind some trees, secretly taking photos. “I was so excited,” Robert said afterwards, laughing.

In many ways the union felt as if it was destined, for in a curious mirror image of her parents’ relationship Bindi’s beau was American, like her mum, and the duo met at the business her dad created, Australia Zoo, which was also where Terri and Steve met. Chandler, a wakeboard champion, was in Australia competing when he visited the zoo as a tourist. He later told The Weekly, “I’d grown up watching Steve and Terri’s documentaries on TV ... I’d had my khakis from about four years old ... I loved seeing how Steve was able to inspire people, and Bindi and her family have kept that inspiration going.”

It was 2013 and on the very day he visited, as luck would have it, Bindi was leading the private tour. The duo immediately clicked. Bindi has since said that it was when she saw Chandler cuddling a koala that her heart skipped a beat. He clearly passed the animal lover’s test. They spent the day together and, “we could talk for ages right from the get-go,” remembers Chandler, now 23. “It was as though we’d known each other for years.”