Joe Exotic announces engagement to fellow inmate

Joe Exotic is getting married.

The Tiger King star, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, got engaged while in prison. He announced the news on his social mediain which he introduces the man he is going to marry with a photo.

“Meet Jorge Marquez, he’s 33,” wrote Maldonado-Passage. “He’s so amazing and he’s from Mexico.”

“Now the quest is to get married in prison and get him asylum or we will leave America when we both get out,” his statement continued. “Anyway, I wish I’d met him a long time ago.”

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This isn’t the Oklahoma zookeeper’s first marriage. Just two months before he married his ex-husband Dillon Passagewho was also on the Netflix hit, Maldonado-Passage was married to Travis Maldonado, who accidentally shot himself and died.

Maldonado-Passage and Passage later separated in 2021 after 3 years of marriage.

“To answer the most important question the public wants to know: yes, Joe and I want a divorce,” Passage wrote on his Instagram at the time. “This was not an easy decision, but Joe and I both understand that this situation is not fair to either of us. It is something neither of us expected, but we will take it day by day.”

“We are still on good terms and I hope this can remain so,” he continued. “I will continue to have Joe in my life and do my best to support him as he faces further legal battles to improve his situation.”

Maldonado-Passage currently serves one 21 years in prison after his Conviction from 2019 for a murder plot against his animal rights activist rival Carole Baskin. He was allegedly accused of paying Allen Glover $3,000 to kill Baskin, a big cat conservationist, along with other charges.

According to prosecutors, starting in July 2016, Maldonado-Passage repeatedly tried to hire people — one of whom was an undercover FBI agent — to kill Baskin, who owns a tiger sanctuary in Florida and won a multimillion-dollar judgment against GW’s Maldonado Passage. Exotic animal memorial park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

Ultimately, Maldonado-Passage paid Glover to travel from Oklahoma to South Carolina and on to Florida to kill Baskin, “promising to pay thousands more after the deed,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Authorities also said he killed five tigers in October 2017 to free up cage space for other animals, then proceeded to sell and offer tiger cubs in interstate commerce and forged forms related to the sale of wild animals in interstate commerce.