Robin Williams’ Daughter Zelda Denies ‘AI Written BS’ That Late Actor Had Pet Monkey

The actress-directed clarified on X that a monkey in a past image with Robin Williams was Crystal the Monkey from 'Night at the Museum.'

August 12, 2024

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images

As artificial intelligence-doctored images and captions continue to run rampant on social media, Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams immediately cleared up a false statement written about the late actor-comedian.

On X account Time Capsule Tales, an image was posted of the Academy Award-winning actor and a monkey. The image was part of a thread dedicated to “final images of historic figures” with Williams supposedly posing beside his “pet monkey” sometime before his devastating suicide on Aug. 11, 2014.

Zelda, the daughter of Williams and his ex-wife, Marsha Garces, has frequently protested the use of AI in entertainment, citing the non-consent her late father to have his voice and likeness appropriated.

But as the image began circulating the internet, with some believing that Williams owned the monkey in the image, his daughter, 35-year-old actress-director Zelda Williams, responded to the false claim.

"It’s been brought to my attention some probably AI-written BS like this is going viral," she wrote. "Dad didn’t own a pet monkey, NO ONE should, and if you’re ever tempted to, support your local exotic animal rescues instead. That is his Night at the Museum costar, who now lives at one."

The tufted capuchin monkey is animal actress Crystal the Monkey, who's appeared in the Dr. Dolittle remake franchise, Garfield: the Movie, and the aforementioned Night At the Museum, where she played Dexter. Crystal, who's now 30 years old, reportedly lives with her trainer.

According to the New York Post, Williams' photo with Crystal was shared on July 14, 2014, but wasn't the last photo taken of him.

In another X post, Zelda urged her father's fans not to easily accept the clickbait, writing, "And 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 continued, "Ignore the creepy robots trying to farm your clicks & do something nice for yourself instead. I sure as hell will."