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Bubbles

 

Katherine Jackson, mother, “Dateline” (June 25, 2010) (archived)

Dateline: Remember Bubbles? Michael was in his early twenties and still living in the family home when he adopted the pet chimp.

Katherine Jackson: I didn’t know he was gonna bring him home because he had talked about getting a chimpanzee, and so I told one of the trainers I don’t want a monkey here. About a week or two later, Michael brought him home and I was shocked to find out that they act so much like humans. He would go and stand in front of you and hold his little hands up for you to pick him up. Just adorable and everybody fell in love with him.

 

Rolling Stone (September 24, 1987)

Imagine the banner headline if the National Enquirer got hold of the story: Michael Jackson shares hotel suite with "Actor friend." The perennial bachelorhood of Jackson – who at twenty-nine still lives with his mother – is one of the many mysteries that have provided the media with abonanza of gossip and speculation. But this time the story is true. Even Michael Jackson's manager, Frank Dileo, confirms it.

When Michael kicks off his first solo tour in Tokyo this month, he will be sharing his two-bedroom suite with one of his closest friends, who is, indeed, an actor. Michael has even helped get an agent for this actor; you may have seen him in Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School. Michael's friend is a three-year-old named Bubbles.

Bubbles is a chimpanzee.

Bubbles is just one of the many real-life characters who populate the elaborate fantasy world that the superstar has constructed around himself. Playing and chatting with Bubbles or Louie the Llama or Crusher, his new 300-pound python, Michael can effortlessly become one of those Disney characters he so loves.

Bubbles goes everywhere with Michael They are a classic TV-style duo, like Timmy and Lassie or Wilbur and Mister Ed. Bubbles often eats at the dinner table with Michael; he was in the recording studio with Michael for much of the two years it took to make Bad, the follow-up to Thriller. Bubbles accompanied Michael to New York for Martin Scorsese's filming of the "Bad" video, which debuted August 31 st on the. CBS special Michael Jackson … the Magic Returns. Bubbles is a star of the new line of stuffed animals known as Michael's Pets, which will also be the basis for a children's cartoon series. Bubbles even has a crib in Michael's bedroom. And when Michael threw an elaborate dinner party at his Encino, California, mansion on a warm July night to begin the promotion of Bad, it was Bubbles, not the pop star, who worked the room, truly the life of the party.

 

“People” magazine (September 14, 1987) (archived) (archived scan of magazine article)

“Michael has a special relationship with Bubbles,” says Dunn. “He spoils him, just like any parent would. But he is strict with him when necessary.” Dunn doesn’t see anything too extraordinary about Michael’s animal passion. “He likes things a lot of kids like, for sure. Who doesn’t? I mean, if we all could have ’em, we would.”

 

Bea Swedien, wife of studio engineer Bruce Swedien, “My Life as a Studio Wife: A Lifetime of Love and Music with Bruce Swedien” (August 11, 2025)

One morning Quincy phoned me and asked if [our dog] Max could come to Westlake Studio later in the day. Of course I said he’d love to. When I arrived at the studio there was Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee Bubbles as well as Steven Spielberg and his young son, whose name is also Max. Steven shot some videos of Max, Max, and Bubbles. Unfortunately I neglected to ask for a copy of “Max’s Film”—his debut with Spielberg behind the camera!