Steve Irwin always knew he would die young

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's widow always feared that her hubby would die young, but never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine that an animal would be the cause of his death.

In her first interview since the television environmentalist's death from a freak stingray attack while filming on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Terri Irwin said that while she had believed that Steve would meet his end by falling out of a tree, he believed that it would in a car accident.

"I thought he would fall out of a tree. He thought it would be a car accident," the New York Daily News quoted her as saying.

Terri also revealed that her husband had a "very strong conviction" that he would die early, but that they had never expected the cause of his death to be an animal.

"He had a very strong conviction that he would die early. To the point where I'm grateful in a way, because we were prepared. I never thought it would be an animal. He never thought it would be an animal," she said.

During the interview, Terri Irwin also described the moment when she learnt of her husband's death from his brother Frank.

"He said there been a diving accident with Steve. It really broadsided me when he told me what happened, and I'm immediately thinking, 'How am I going to get to him?' And I am also thinking, 'Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it.' And he said it, those three words: 'Steve is dead'. And I felt myself explode inside," she revealed.

As for how she and her kids Bindi Sue, eight, and two-year-old Bob are coping, they are simply taking each day 'one minute at a time'.