Joe Exotic has married again despite being in the midst of a 21-year federal prison sentence. The Tiger King star, 62, revealed he has married an inmate while behind bars.
He has tied the knot with Jorge Flores Maldonado while in prison following his 2019 conviction. Exotic was jailed for hiring hitmen to kill his zookeeper rival Carole Baskin.
He was previously married to the late Travis Maldonado, who died aged 23 after accidentally shooting himself in 2017. Travis, who had a history of drug addiction, was also involved in a three-way ceremony with Exotic and John Finlay.
Exotic, also known Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was also married Dillon Passage, who he hooked up with two months after Travis’ death. The relationship ended in 2020 and they filed for divorce the following year.
In 2019, Exotic was convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire for the plot to kill Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin.
Exotic has now shared the news from prison that he has married Jorge. Announcing their marriage online, he said: “Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.”
He had shared news of their engagement in October as he told fans: “Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico.
“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.”
According to CBS News, Exotic’s new husband is serving time for immigration-related issues. Exotic submitted a marriage application to the federal prison in order to wed Jorge.
He also has “high hopes” that his appeal of his entire case will succeed. Exotic requested a presidential pardon for himself and Jorge, as well as asylum for his now husband.
“I wish someone that is President or wins the Presidency would do the right thing and pardon me so I could move past this nightmare that my own country has caused for the last 7 years of my life,” Exotic said last year.
“All I did was build a zoo and some people were very jealous. Then I was put into prison by my own country.”
In a phone interview with Entertainment Tonight, Exotic opened up on the wedding plans. He said: “We filed our official papers for the marriage license from the prison yesterday, so we’re just waiting for an approval.
“He has picked out December 12 as the date we’re hoping to get this approved by.” Exotic said the marriage application “had to be approved by the warden and psychiatry and the chaplain” before their license could be approved.
He said: “We love each other very much, spend every minute of the day together. I’ve been through some s**t in my days. I buried two husbands, the third one ran off with $2.6 million bucks from Netflix and left my a** here, but Jorge is a very amazing young man.”
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