’48 Hours: Suspicion’: Don Lewis’ Ex-Wife Claims He Was a Serial Adulterer

In a new interview with CBS News, Gladys Lewis Cross bluntly stated her husband, Don Lewis, was a serial adulterer before his disappearance. Lewis’ disappearance was a central part of the Netflix original series Tiger King, as Joe Exotic accused Carole Baskin of murdering him. Now, some are taking Cross’ statements as a new clue in the case.

Lewis was married to Cross for about 34 years before they divorced in 1990, and he got re-married to wildlife activist Baskin. Lewis then disappeared in 1997, and the account of the case on Tiger King left many viewers with the impression that Baskin had murdered him. His ex-wife spoke freely in the docu-series as well, but now she is opening up even more in an interview on CBS’ 48 Hours: Suspicion. In a preview clip, Cross describes her husband’s habit of seeing other women behind her back.

Asked if Lewis was a “good husband,” Cross said candidly: “He was, until I would get a call and say he’s seeing someone else. When interviewer Richard Schlesinger asked if Cross knew how many other women her husband was seeing, she said: “Well, if you’re talking about the whole 34 years I was married to him, possible 25.”

Still, Cross insisted that Lewis was “a good husband” other than his penchant for seeing other women. In Tiger King, Cross seemed to gravitate towards the theory that Baskin had something to do with Lewis’ disappearance, though she has never been formally charged or convicted. Baskin continues to deny those allegations to this day.

The 48 Hours: Suspicion report also features an interview with Trish Farr-Payne, whose ex-husband Kenny Farr was featured in Tiger King. Farr-Payne told reporters that Farr was a violent, abusive husband and that she believes he had something to do with Lewis’ disappearance. She described a scene around the time that Lewis vanished when her husband came home with Lewis’ fan, which was filled with guns. Farr told her that they belonged to Lewis.

“‘Listen… I’m hangin’ on to these right now for Carole,’” she recalled him saying. “But — he said, ‘Don’s gone. And — I don’t want you talkin’ about him. If anybody calls, you don’t say anything about Don.’ I’m, like, ‘OK.’ Everything started kinda coming together. Kenny’s got Don’s van. Kenny’s got Don’s guns. Don’s gone, and I knew Don was gone the day before he was supposedly missing. It — something wasn’t right.”

Even more suspiciously, Farr-Payne said that her husband had once threatened to put her into the meat grinder at Lewis’ zoo — the same way that critics claim Baskin murder Lewis. These interviews and more will be included in a new episode of 48 Hours: Suspicion, airing on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.