More than 15 years after the passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, his legacy endures through his music, his three children, and notably, his pet chimpanzee Bubbles.
Now 41 years old, Bubbles resides peacefully at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, yet his earlier days left lasting memories.
During a recent discussion on the Third Hour of Today with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, Rashida Jones disclosed that she was bitten by Bubbles when she was a child.
“I have a scar,” she even told them, showing the hosts the area on her wrist where the chimp had left a mark. When asked whether she’d go visit him in Florida for some closure, Rashida, 48, simply replied: “No, I think we’re good.”
As the daughter of Quincy Jones, a close collaborator and friend of the late Michael’s, Rashida recalled in a previous interview with The New Yorker what it was like to have him around the house often.
“He was really young. My dad met him on The Wiz. He was maybe nineteen. He was like a big kid with lots of animals,” she recalled, before revealing how the incident with Bubbles actually happened.”
“It was my fault,” she admitted, before backtracking: “Well, no, it’s not my fault. I am not the one who put a chimpanzee in overalls and a diaper. But I did antagonize him. I was nine. He was in a cage, and he took my hairband out of my hand.”
Rashida continued: “Everybody else had left the room, and I was, like, ‘Give it back!’ He was playing with it and wouldn’t give it back to me. So I opened the cage, and he came out.”
At this point, she added that Bubbles started to get more rambunctious and caused a bit more mayhem than she’d expected or hoped for. “Then he started running around the room and throwing books. A bit of a nightmare, now that I think about it.”
“I went up to him and was, like, ‘No! No!’— because I’d seen Michael say ‘No!’ to him. And I slapped him on the head, just a light, little slap. And he took my hand like a sandwich and bit into it.”
The incident left a lasting impact on the actress, describing it as “traumatic.” She recalled that Bubbles was retired and living in Florida, jokingly adding, “Retired from what? Biting children?” She noted that Bubbles now holds the alpha male position in his group at the chimp retirement facility.
In addition to discussing the chimp incident, the actress, currently promoting her new series Sunny, reflected on witnessing the release of Thriller. This iconic 1982 collaboration between Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones garnered eight Grammys, became the best-selling album of all time, and produced memorable hits and music videos such as “Billie Jean,” “Beat It
“I remember we went to the set of the [“Thriller”] video, in Griffith Park,” Rashida shared. “We were reading the storyboards, and right when we got to the part where he turns around and he’s a werewolf, Michael walked into the trailer with those crazy yellow eyes. Very scary!”
“It changed everything for my dad. I remember watching the Grammys at home, and he won every single Grammy. I had so many ‘Thriller’ T-shirts and memorabilia. I don’t think I have any of that anymore. That’s really sad.”
