Joe Exotic Wants a Divorce So He Can Marry His New Prison Beau
The Tiger King reportedly met his new flame last year. He now wants a divorce from his estranged second husband—whom he wed two months after his first husband’s accidental suicide.
Courtesy of Netflix
Joe Exotic is eyeing a third husband while still married to his second. TMZ reports that the Tiger King—in prison for his murder for hire plot against Big Cat Rescue proprietor Carole Baskin—is filing for divorce from his estranged husband, Dillon Passage, to marry John Graham. As the G.W. Zoo founder put it, “God works in amazing ways.”
The two met last February in the Texas prison FMC Fort Worth, according to TMZ. Graham was reportedly in for burglary and possession of a firearm and secured his release last month. His commitment to the Netflix star, however, has apparently not wavered.
The imprisoned Tiger King, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage (née Schreibvogel) married Passage in 2017—two months, TMZ points out, after his second husband, Travis Maldonado, accidentally killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The accidental suicide was among the most tragic and shocking details in the original Tiger King series, which went gangbusters on Netflix at the start of the pandemic.
So successful was the show, in fact, that it’s now inspired multiple Hollywood adaptations. Peacock’s Joe vs. Carole, which stars Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell as our warring big cat aficionados, bowed on Peacock last month. Plans for the other series, an Amazon production that would have starred Nicolas Cage, have since dissolved.
“I read two excellent scripts,” Cage told Variety last summer. “... But I think Amazon ultimately felt that it was material that had become past tense because it took so long for it come together. They felt at one point that it was lightning in a bottle, but that point has since faded into the distance and it’s no longer relevant.”
That’s not for lack of trying on Netflix’s part to keep its viral sensation top of mind. The streamer staged a reunion episode for the show’s various talking heads and pulled together both a sequel and spin-off series about Maldonado-Passage’s former mentor, Myrtle Beach Safari owner Doc Antle.
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Maldonado-Passage himself has also been doing his best to gain attention in prison—including by reportedly writing a book in prison. Perhaps he’ll add another chapter dedicated to his new husband.
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