Robert Irwin Reveals the Hilarious Warning He Gave His Family Before Going Shirtless on “Dancing with the Stars”

Robert Irwin gave his family a warning before his shirtless moment on Dancing With the Stars.

The winner of DWTS season 34 joined host Kylie Kelce for the Thursday, Dec. 18 episode of her Not Gonna Lie podcast, where he revealed his family didn’t know he’d be shirtless on live television.

During the Sept. 30 episode of the competition show, known as TikTok Night, Irwin and partner Witney Carson danced a Salsa to “Million Dollar Baby” by Tommy Richman. The sultry dance earned them a score of 22/30 and went viral due to Irwin’s chiseled physique.

“They didn’t [know it was coming],” Irwin shared. “Surprise!”

“There was a good reason for that because, every dance that I had done, I would give my family a little preview,” he said. “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….”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I was like, I can't show my fam, I don't know,” Irwin confessed. “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.’ ”

He continued, “But you know what? Life is short. You gotta just embrace it. There's nothing wrong with that. It was fun.”

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight after the episode, Carson shared she was concerned her partner’s shirtless moment would make his female fanbase go wild.

"I had so many moments of regret. I was like, 'Did I make the right choice taking his shirt off?' " she joked. She continued to say that her DMs were “in flames” and urged, “Girls, lets take it down a little. I can only take so much."

Irwin added that he was excited to show the audience a different side of him, saying, “I want to show this new side, I want to own this. I want to give it that bit of oomph.”

“I’ve never gotten to do that,” he explained. “I’ve never gotten to just be like, ‘You know, I’m going to be cool. I’m just gonna come and rock this.’ It was fun.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, the wildlife conservationist told Kelce that the best advice his sister Bindi Irwin, who won season 21 of the dancing competition series, gave him before his turn on the show was to “let go and lean in.”

“She said, ‘This experience will change your life,’ ” he noted. “‘Remember why you're here. Remember what you represent. Remember that passion you have. Remember everything that you're about. And remember that this experience is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be a challenge.”

“And I just went, alright. I just gotta let go and lean into this absolute hurricane,” Irwin added.