Michael Jackon’s pet chimpanzee Bubbles might just be the most famous primate to have ever walked the planet.
After almost two decades since he ditched Neverland for his forever home, the audacious chimp is living a much quieter life in his retirement.
The estate of Jackson, who would have turned 65 today (August 29), continues to pay for his care which costs a staggering $25,000 (£19.8k) a year.
And the now 40-year-old Bubbles unsurprisingly looks very different.
READ MORE: Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles pictured at his 40th birthday party in retirement home
Bubbles has lived at the Centre for great Apes in Wauchula, Florida since 2005.
(Image: centerforgreatapes/Instagram)
The centre houses Bubbles and his best pals like Oopsie, Murray, Mowgli and Bo, in a 100-acre space where the apes are able to roam freely.
Staff at the sanctuary have described him as “huge and ugly” but add that he has a very “sweet character”.
He’s apparently the Alpha of the group and will also “spit water or throw sand” at strangers just to get a rise out of them.
Earlier this year, he celebrated his 40th birthday and the centre put up a whole host of decorations.
Despite being “very difficult to photograph” and camera-shy, he even took a selfie to remember the momentous occasion.
(Image: GETTY)
They wrote on Instagram: “The girls were focused on the food treats, but Bubbles was more interested in greeting visitors and looking at all the decorations.”
It’s a far cry from the life he lived with Jacko.
Bubbles was born in 1983, in a research centre in Austin, Texas, before Jackson took him home for the princely sum of $65,000 (£56k) as a toddler.
The pair quickly became inseparable and were soon moonwalking and ‘hee-hee-ing’ together across the globe.
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Bubbles was certainly no ordinary chimp. He travelled the world, on private jets, appeared on TV in human clothes and even reportedly had his own agent bodyguard.
He even managed to peeve off Queen’s Freddie Mercury after he sat between him and Jackson while they were trying to record a duet.
“I’m not performing with a f***ing chimp sitting next to me each night,” he said according to author David Wigg, before later ditching the project altogether.
(Image: FilmMagic, Inc)
In his downtime, Bubbles scoffed sweets, watched movies, used the toilet, ate at the dinner table and slept in a cot next to the singer’s bed.
While mostly good as gold, he did occasionally monkey around which included him flinging his faeces around the mansion.
By the time the great ape turned 20, he weighed a whopping 75kg and grew too large and aggressive for Jackson to look after.
All of a sudden, Bubbles’ high octane lifestyle was flipped upside down after he was relocated to a ranch in California, run by Bob Dunn.
(Image: Sankei via Getty Images)
(Image: SHUTTERSTOCK)
“Bubbles is an adult chimp and a wild animal… We don’t let him out to play,” he told CNN.
And some even claim that the chimp was mistreated while under Jackson’s care.
“Bubbles is still alive and he is very beautiful. But when he was with Michael Jackson, he was being beaten,” Dame Jane Goodall, the world’s leading primatologist, told TMZ.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
