Zelda Williams Debunks Viral Photo of Her Father Robin Williams Alleging He Owned a Pet Monkey

Robin Williams‘ daughter, Zelda, took to X, formerly Twitter, this weekend to debunk a viral photo of the late comedian alleging he owned a pet monkey.

“Dad didn’t own a pet monkey,” Zelda wrote. “NO ONE should.”

The photo in question, posted from an account titled Time Capsule Tales, showed Robin Williams smiling with a monkey balanced on his shoulder. The caption claimed the picture was taken a few days before Williams died by suicide on Aug. 11, 2014, and that the animal was “his pet monkey.” By the time of this article’s publication, the post had nearly 9 million views.

In her post, Zelda clarified that the monkey in the photo is the animal that appeared in Night at the Museum, and that the monkey now lives at an animal rescue center. She referred the original post as “some probably AI written BS.”

In a separate post, Zelda also noted that Monday will be the tenth anniversary of her father’s death. “Since more completely false or badly researched posts are likely to go viral on Dad’s death anniversary, maybe just assume they’re all BS (they usually are),” she wrote. “Ignore the creepy robots trying to farm your clicks & do something nice for yourself instead. I sure as hell will.”

THR Newsletters