Rowan was honored with the Leonard Simon Award for her work with Animal Haven and brought her rescue dog, Cluny.
Brooke Shields once battled a monkey in Thailand, and her daughter Rowan shared how the bananas encounter went down.
Rowan, 22, accompanied Shields, 60, to Animal Haven's 2026 Benefit for the Animals at the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on Thursday, April 30.
"We were in Thailand, and mom got off and was swimming around when she was doing a movie there," Rowan explained. "I went to visit her, and we're the type of people where it's like, we think we could get the lion [to] be best friends with us. ... But she went up to a monkey."
"Then the monkey attacked her and we had to quickly get off the island," Rowan continued. "I watched from the boat. I was like, 'There she goes. There she goes.' "
"I've never seen anybody swim faster. I gave it bananas," Brooke said, while Rowan added, "It doesn't want a banana. It wants to get you off its island."
The Pretty Baby star then remarked that the monkey was "very happy" to take the bananas.
During the event, Rowan was honored with the Leonard Simon Award for her work with Animal Haven. She also adopted her dog, Cluny, through the organization, and the pup accompanied her to the ceremony.
Shields shares her two daughters with her husband Chris Henchy. She welcomed Rowan on May 15, 2003, and raised her in N.Y.C. Rowan went on to attend Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.
"She's really living her life, she's enjoying college,she's just really blossoming and growing," Shields said on People (the TV Show!) in 2021.
"I listen to the way [my daughters] talk to each other and their friends and the things they're discussing," she continued at the time,"and you think,'Wow,she's really her own person and I've done my best in my job and I'm going to try to get out of her way.' "
Shields had her second daughter, Grier, on April 18, 2006, in Los Angeles. Grier, 20, has a love for fashion, as her mom told PEOPLE in 2021, "If I want to know where anything good that I have is, and I can't find it in my closet, I know exactly where to find it. It's her!"
Grier also joined her mother for a modeling campaign for Victoria's Secret for Mother's Day in 2022, and Shields has since encouraged her to continue her modeling career.
"I finally had to give in and say,'If you're gonna do this,I'm not gonna be your manager.You're going to be with an agency.You're going to have a great work ethic.It's not going to be comfortable.You're gonna listen to me.And you're going to college,' "Shields said on Live with Kelly and Mark.
After graduation, Grier followed Rowan's footsteps to attend Wake Forest University.
Since both of Shields' daughters left for college, she has been adjusting to life as an "empty nester."
"Then, they came home for Christmas," she shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
"It was great, and then, I couldn't wait for them to leave. I was so sad when they left the first time. Then, at the end of Christmas, I'm like, 'Don't you have to get back to school?' " the mom of two joked.