Who is Ashley Judd’s current partner? All about Harvard professor Martin Surbeck

The well-known Hollywood actress, Ashley Judd, has kept her personal life rather private for the most part. But her romance with Harvard professor and primatologist Martin Surbeck has received attention, particularly in light of Judd’s injury in Congo in 2021.

His career mainly involves studying bonobos, one of humanity’s closest relatives in the animal kingdom. According to The Harvard Gazette, Surbeck has spent years trying to figure out the details of primate behavior, particularly the differences in how female bonobos cooperate.

“These animals are fascinating to watch, and they’re interesting because we don’t know that much about them. So I spent a year in the Congo, habituating bonobos to humans.” he said in a statement.

He graduated with a master’s degree in Biology from the University of Zürich and later with a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig. His work led him to the remote rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he established the Kokolopori Bonobo Research Project.

Surbeck works with conservation groups like the Bonobo Conservation Initiative and Vie Sauvage, and his research centers on the Behavioral ecology of Bonobos and Chimpanzees.

More about how Ashley Judd met Martin Surbeck and her near-death experience in Congo

An outspoken activist for humanitarian and environmental affairs for many years, Ashley Judd frequently joins Surbeck on excursions to gather data. According to AOL, it was on one of those trips to the Congo, in early 2021, that Judd sustained a leg injury, tripping over a tree root in the rainforest.

According to reports, her leg was broken in multiple places, and it took 55 hours by motorbike transport and bush flight to get her to the hospital in South Africa. Ashley Judd has thanked the people who helped during this period, saying that if not for them, she would have been dead due to her internal bleeding.

"I wake up weeping in gratitude, deeply moved by each person who contributed something life giving and spirit salving during my grueling 55 hour odyssey." She captioned an Instagram post.

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Reports by AmoMama suggest that Surbeck was not there when Ashley Judd sustained the injury but later came to her aid and was a constant support in that journey.

Ashley Judd has since made a great recovery, despite the physical and emotional ordeal of the experience. She made a public appearance six months later, joining Martin Surbeck and her father at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. She got up and walked on her own with just the support of her ankle brace.

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