'Punch' The Viral Lonely Monkey Has Reportedly Found Love

The story of Punch the monkey is probably one of the saddest and most rage-inducing tales of 2026 thus far. However, it’s just taken a massively positive turn.

To recap: Punch the monkey is a baby macaque in Japan that was abandoned by his mum and forced to bond with a doll after being rejected by other monkeys. Videos of the other monkeys at his zoo bullying and beating him up went viral as the images of Punch retreating to his orange stuffed toy for protection were just brutal and gut-wrenching.

Well, here’s the good news: Punch now appears to have found a real companion/girlfriend and seems like he’s finally living the good life:

🐒💕 Punch has found his other half

His new companion turned out to be the same color as the plush “mom” he used to carry everywhere. pic.twitter.com/5W57rUliwR
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 16, 2026

Most reports identify his girlfriend as a 5-year-old female named Momo-chan, which is a bit weird as Punch is only about 7 months old. I’m not sure that sort of thing is really an issue in the monkey world, though. Besides, who cares? Look at how happy and in love Punch is:

Staff at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo have also noted that Punch is now communicating more with other monkeys in general, and spending less time with his doll, so that’s good.

All we have really have to worry about now is whether Momo-chan is using Punch for his fame. After all, she’s much older than he is and he is something of a “child star” as the most famous monkey on the planet right now. You just know all the other monkeys have got wind of all the extra visitors at the zoo and the attention Punch has been getting from them. Hopefully he’s got a buddy in there too who can wise him up to this possibility because the last thing anyone wants is for Punch to be taken advantage of after the rough ride he’s had in life so far.

For now though, he’s come a long way from the sad, dejected baby monkey that went viral a month ago. From this…