‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic Claims He Got Married in Prison

Tiger King star Joe Exotic says he is married once again.

The incarcerated Netflix documentary personality, 62, announced Monday that he and fellow inmate Jorge Marquez have seemingly married.

“Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado,” wrote Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, on X (formerly Twitter). Alongside the announcement, Exotic included an edited photo of himself and his new husband in matching tuxedos in front of a floral altar.

The former zoo owner is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence at Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, after being convicted in 2020 of a murder-for-hire plot aimed at rival Carole Baskin.

In October 2024, Exotic announced on social media that he and Marquez had gotten engaged. “Meet Jorge Marquez … he is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico,” the Netflix personality wrote on X. “Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.”

That same month, Exotic told Entertainment Weekly that he and his fiancé were waiting on prison approval from the warden “and psychiatry and the chaplain” before officially marrying.

“We filed our official papers for the marriage license from the prison yesterday, so we’re just waiting for an approval,” he said at the time. “He has picked out December 12 as the date we’re hoping to get this approved by.” The big cat enthusiast added, “We love each other very much, spend every minute of the day together.”

This would be Exotic’s third marriage, as he was previously married to Travis Maldonado before the 23-year-old died via an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in October 2017. Two months after Maldonado’s death, Exotic married Dillon Passage, but the two would go on to separate in 2020.

“To answer the main question the public wants to know, yes, Joe and I are seeking a divorce,” Passage confirmed in March 2021. “This wasn’t an easy decision to make but Joe and I both understand that this situation isn’t fair to either of us. It’s something that neither of us were expecting but we are going to take it day by day.”