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Michael Jackson rescued Bubbles from a research lab in 1985. These days, however, Bubbles lives with other famous chimps at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla.SunMedia
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Ever wonder what happened to Bubbles?
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Well, Michael Jackson’s formerly famous chimpanzee companion has been living in a primate retirement home in the U.S. since 2005, according to the U.K. tabloid The Sun.
The newspaper reports that Bubbles, now 38, which is late-middle-aged in a chimp’s lifespan, makes his home these days far away from the spotlight at the Centre for Great Apes in Florida.
The chimp reportedly is camera-shy, likes listening to flute music and paints the odd abstract — with one piece selling for just over $5,100 in 2017.
In his heyday, Bubbles was constantly in the public eye after being adopted as a baby by the King of Pop, who died of a drug overdose in 2009.
Jackson and Bubbles were once so inseparable that he went on world tours with the singer, stayed with him in hotel rooms and dined out in public with him.
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However, ape expert Jane Goodall, 87, alleged in 2014 the chimp had been “beaten” while living with Jackson and that the singer became upset when she confronted him about tit.
“I went to see him and we talked about Bubbles,” The Sun quotes Goodall as saying. “I ticked him off. Bubbles is still alive and he’s beautiful. But when he was with Michael he was being beaten.”
Goodall never named Bubbles’ abuser and the Jackson family has denied Jackson abused the chimp, but the ex-husband of sister LaToya claims he saw the singer attack him.
In a 2003 documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson told journalist Martin Bashir that Bubbles was being sent away because he had become too moody and always wanted to fight.
A report claimed that same year the chimp tried to kill himself and was rushed to hospital before allegedly being saved by medics, but no other details have ever been released.
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