LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘The View’ is well-known for the guests they often bring on the talk show, some of which have included Greta Gerwig, Christopher Nolan and Jim Gaffigan amongst others. On Tuesday, July 25, ‘The View’ welcomed Paul de Gelder, a hero, giving him the exposure and a platform to tell his inpirational and heartbreaking story.

De Gelder, a shark attack survivor, turned a personal tragedy into something much bigger than him. He is now a part of shows, podcasts and most importantly, he is a shark conservationist. He spoke about his journey on ‘The View’.

Who is Paul de Gelder?

De Gelder is known for being a motivational speaker and shark conservationist. He was previously a part of the Dive Team in the Royal Australian Navy, which was when he was attacked by a shark. He is also an author and has written the books ‘No Time for Fear’ and ‘Shark: Why We Need To Save the World's Most Misunderstood Predator'. Most recently, he published a book called ‘Shark: The world's most misunderstood predator’ on July 20.

‘I’m going to die’

The moderator on Tuesday, Whoopi Goldberg, asked de Gelder, “You were working for the Australian Navy in the Sydney Harbor, and all of a sudden…what happened?” He then narrated the story which changed his life. He said, “I was swimming on the surface, I wasn’t actually diving. I was on my back, kicking my leg because I was moving from point A to point B, it was part of a counter-terrorism exercise that we were doing.” He then explained that he felt a “massive whack in his leg” which turned out to be a shark. He admitted this was the first time he came face to face with a shark that big as he tried to wrestle it, but failed.

“He just took me underwater and started tearing me into pieces, and the pain was just absolute agony, and I remember thinking to myself, I’m not going home today, I’m going to die right now,” said De Gelder, which left Sunny Hostin, who sat next to him on the panel, in awe.

De Gelder explained that in that moment, he looked back on his entire life and that he had done more than what he could have ever imagined. He added that he was “ready to go” at that moment. The co-hosts listened intently as he described how he resurfaced, realized he was still alive and swam with one hand until his teammates pulled him out of the water. He then spent nine weeks in a hospital recovering, but could still find some humor in all that happened, as he summed the incident up with, “This sucks.”