The new HBO docuseries follows Tonia Haddix's efforts at hiding Tonka the chimp from authorities after a judge ordered that the animal be turned over to an animal sanctuary.
Viewers are going bananas over HBO's new hit docuseries, "Chimp Crazy." The star and eccentric exotic animal owner spoke with Inside Edition in an exclusive 2022 interview.
Produced by the same filmmaker who directed Tiger King, the new docuseries follows Tonia Haddix's efforts to hide Tonka the chimp from authorities after a judge ordered that the animal, who appeared in the 1997 comedy George of the Jungle, be turned over to an animal sanctuary.
Haddix said she "absolutely" faked Tonka's death.
Haddix told Inside Edition she lied to authorities when she told them that Tonka was dead and she had him cremated.
Haddix said she turned over fake ashes, but she was actually hiding Tonka in the basement of her Missouri home.
However, the animal rights group PETA said they "never believed Tonia's story" and immediately started to look for him, PETA attorney Brittany Peet tells Inside Edition. They teamed up with Tonka's former co-star, actor Alan Cumming, to offer a $20,000 reward for anyone with information on Tonka's whereabouts.
After six months, an anonymous tip led U.S. Marshals to Tonia's basement. They swarmed her home and seized Tonka.
Haddix said she believed the filmmakers behind "Chimp Crazy" sent in the anonymous tip. She said she believes they did it to create drama for the docuseries.
"They wanted a magnificent ending to their story so that they could get that $60 million off of that documentary," she said. "They lied to me from the get-go."
Tonka now lives at Save the Chimps Sanctuary in Florida. He is 32 years old.
"As Tonka arrived, he was checking out, looking for other chimpanzees," the sanctuary's director, Ana Paola Tavera, says.
Tonia said she believes he would be better off in her care.
"They took him from the only home he knows, the only mother he knows, and he woke up in a sanctuary setting, and he doesn't know what happened," she says. "He counts on me and I know he does and now his whole world is turned upside down."
The first two episodes of "Chimp Crazy" are airing now on HBO and streaming on Max.
Inside Edition reached out to the filmmakers and HBO for comment but did not hear back.
