John Finlay, the ex-husband of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness subject Joe Exotic (real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage), is speaking out about the issues he has with the popular Netflix docuseries, and they all have to do with his appearance. While the series showed him shirtless and missing several of his teeth, Finlay told TMZ that he actually had his teeth fixed during filming.
Sporting brand new pearly whites, which are actually dentures, Finlay told the outlet that he had dental work done in July of 2019. Although there was plenty of footage and photos of him with his new teeth, none of it made it into Tiger King, something that Finlay, who has stepped away from the world of exotic animal keeping and now works as a welder, finds upsetting.
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You can see before and after photos on TMZ by clicking here.
Although Tiger King never directly addressed Finlay’s smile, many viewers came to the assumption that it was due to meth abuse, something that he denies. While he admits to abusing drugs, Finlay explained that his dental issues were present prior to his drug use and were actually the result of a genetic disorder.
In a recent Facebook post, Finlay added that his teeth “were fixed before, but kept braking (sic) from accidents on four wheelers, animal attacks, and getting beat up while building cages,” according to Entertainment Tonight.
As for his shirtless appearance, sources who spoke to TMZ alleged that Tiger King‘s producers had the idea for that and Finlay went along with it, something that Finlay himself alluded to when responding to comments on Facebook, writing that the producers “twisted the truth to present the perfect entertainment production.”
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Finlay slammed the series for making him “look like a drugged-out hillbilly.”
While Finlay isn’t up for a second season of the series, he is hoping to pop up in the media some more to get his side of the story out there.
“I’m waiting to get my story out, to be able to sit down with a producer or reporter to actually get the whole story out,” he said. “And to really let the world know what my life was actually like.”
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
