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Tiger King star Joe Exotic has been married six times. Exotic was married to Dillon Passage from 2017-2023 and to Travis Maldonado from 2015-2017, before tying the knot with fellow inmate Jorge Flores Maldonado.
Exotic has been serving a 21 year sentence after he was convicted in 2019 of hiring hitment to kill his zookeeper rival Carole Baskin. As per CBS News, his new-husband is serving time for immigration-related offences.
Exotic announced news of their wedding by sharing a photoshopped picture of the two wearing suits with the caption,
"Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado."
This comes after Exotic had shared photos of him posing with Maldonado in prison, and expressed gratitude to him. Exotic seemingly requested US President Donald Trump for a presidential pardon saying,
"He has gotten me through so much fighting cancer under these conditions. All I pray to God for is Trump will allow me to enjoy a little life outside with him before it's too late. I love you Jorge you are my life."
Joe Exotic had previously shared news of his engagement to Maldonado in October, 2024, saying,
"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."
Who were Joe Exotic's five husbands?
Before Joe Exotic married his inmate, Jorge Flores Maldonado, in April, 2025, he had already tied the knot five times. He first wedded Brian Rhyne in the late 1980s, and the two opened the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park together, before Rhyne died of complications from HIV in 2001.
Within a year of Brian's death, Exotic got together with events producer Jeffrey Charles "J.C." Hartpence. While Texas Monthly called Hartpence, Joe's "lifepartner", New York Magazine referred to him as his husband.
In 2014, Joe married John Finlay, and Travis Michael Maldonado in a three-way ceremony. However, in less than a year, Finlay wanted out of the relationship. Exotic and Travis were married until the latter's accidental suicide in 2017. Exotic then went on to marry, Dillon Passage, two months after Travis' death and while Passage filed for divorce in 2021, the two are reportedly still married .
Joe Exotic gained recognition after appearing in Netflix's latest true crime docuseries: Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, in 2020. Exotic practices polygamy and lived with his husbands at his Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park before he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
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