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'The Office' star recalls traumatic moment she was bitten by Michael Jackson's chimpanzee: "He took my..."

"Well, no, it's not my fault. I am not the one who put a chimpanzee in overalls and a diaper," the actress recalled.

Michael Jackson was known to be an exotic pet lover; he had various animals, including snakes, alpacas, and llamas, in his famous Neverland Ranch. As per People, among them was Bubbles, the chimpanzee he rescued from a cancer research center in Dallas. While Bubbles remained to be the King of Pop's beloved animal companion, it traumatized a young actress. Rashida Jones revealed how, as a child, she had been enthralled with Jackson's animal kingdom, and how her father, Quincy Jones, had produced some of the 'Billie Jean' hitmaker's classic albums, helping to propel him to stardom. "He was really young. My dad met him on 'The Wiz.' He was maybe 19. He was like a big kid with lots of animals."

As per the Daily Mail, Jones claimed it was her fault that she agitated the chimpanzee and it bit her hand, leaving a permanent scar. "Sorry, I was just sighing because I was just thinking about how I was bit by his monkey," she recalled. "It was my fault. Well, no, it's not my fault. I am not the one who put a chimpanzee in overalls and a diaper." 'The Office' actress then recounted how the animal took off her hairband and wouldn't return it as they were playing and teasing it. After she unlocked his cage, the monkey began to run around wildly, throwing books and causing mayhem. Jones claimed that the animal went mad and bit her hand after she gave him a mild head smack.

"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," she recalled. "Then he started running around the room and throwing books." Jones continued, "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. I know. Traumatic." Coming back to the present the 'Parks & Recreation' actress revealed that chimp is now a grown adult and lives in The Center for Great Apes, Florida. 

"He's 40, and he lives in Florida now, I think. He's retired. [From what?] Biting children?' she joked. "I saw that he's the alpha male of his group, in whatever chimp retirement home he's at." Bubbles was given away to the care facility in 2005 after encountering behavioral issues and becoming aggressive. According to the center, Bubbles enjoyed solitude and painting; he is also "treated as the dominant male in his group of chimpanzees that includes his best friends, Ripley and Oopsie." The website also states that the Jackson estate annually takes care of the chimp's expenses. 

In April 2023, Bubbles celebrated his 40th birthday with a Bubbles-themed party, as per the New York Post. “He did get a cake—but it’s a special ape-healthy cake,” Patti Ragan, the founding director, revealed. “We frost it with mashed bananas and add a little bit of blue food coloring and then we wrote his name in blueberries,” she said. Bubbles is occasionally visited by Jackson’s sister, LaToya, and attorney John Branca. However, Ragan admitted that Jackson's three children have never connected with the chimp, “I don’t know that they even know he’s here, frankly, because they were all born after Bubbles moved. They’re welcome to visit.”