Joe Exotic has announced his marriage to fellow inmate Jorge Márquez.
Sharing a photoshopped photo of the couple wearing suits, he wrote on Tuesday (April 21), “Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.”
The Tiger King star is in the midst of a 21-year federal prison sentence for hiring hitmen to take the life of his zookeeper rival, Carole Baskin.
Joe, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, shared news of his engagement in October, telling his 396,000 followers: “Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico.
Joe Exotic has tied the knot with fellow inmate, 33-year-old Jorge Márquez
Image credits: Rex Features / Vidapress
“Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we’ll be leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.”
Jorge is serving prison time for immigration-related issues, CBS News reported.
The tiger trader is currently incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth.
He was convicted in 2019 on 21 counts, including 19 counts of wildlife crimes and two counts of hiring assassins to “cap” animal rights activist Carole Baskin, as he described in a recording obtained by police.
The prosecutor said he had paid $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to carry out the crime against Carole, who owns a tiger refuge in Florida.
The 62-year-old has always maintained his innocence and claimed he was not being serious when making the comments.
Authorities also stated that in October 2017, he sacrificed five tigers to make room in the cages for other animals. Following that, he sold and attempted to sell tiger cubs across state lines and falsified documents related to the interstate sale of wildlife.
Joe is currently serving a 21-year sentence at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth
Joe previously requested a presidential pardon for both him and Jorge, as well as asylum for Jorge.
“I wish someone who 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,” he wrote in a news release.
“All I did was build a zoo, and some people were very jealous. Then I was put into prison by my own country.”
The Netflix star shared a photoshopped wedding image of himself and his new husband
His feud with Carole Baskin was the focus of the 2020 Netflix docuseries Tiger King, which was watched by 34.3 million people over its first ten days of release.
It followed Joe, the eccentric owner of an Oklahoma zoo, and his years-old rivalry with the Big Cat Rescue conservationist, who accused him of ab*sing wild animals, including tigers, lions, and alligators.
The series also showed Joe’s polyamorous relationship with the late Travis Maldonado and John Finlay and the unofficial three-way wedding ceremony they shared in 2014.
Travis was a 19-year-old who started to work at the zoo to help with his substance dependence issues. He passed away after accidentally shooting himself in 2017.
He asked the government to release them and let them move to his husband’s native Mexico
As for John, he reportedly left Joe and remarried a woman with whom he has a child.
The Netflix star was also married to bartender Dillon Passage, but they divorced in 2021.
As part of the divorce agreement, Dillon can no longer “distribute, profit from, sell, transfer or use” any of the likenesses of Joe, and there is a non-disparagement agreement in place, according to TMZ.
While in prison, John held an online “Bachelor King” contest, asking people to apply to become his boyfriend, which led to his relationship with Seth Posey.
Seth won the dating contest and had plans to marry Joe, but the two later split.
Before his three-way wedding, the Tiger King was in two different relationships with Brian Rhyne, whom he married in the late 1980s, and JC Hartpence, who helped him create a traveling animal show.
Joe was convicted in 2019 for wildlife violations and hiring hitmen to target animal rights activist Carole Baskin
Joe remains “optimistic” that he and Jorge will be released from prison in 2025 and hopes to start a new life as an academic specializing in wildlife.
During his first term, President Donald Trump told a reporter that he would “take a look” at the tiger trader’s sentence, but it was not modified.
In a recent message addressed to the White House, Joe wrote, “You could deport him at some point, but if you let me go, we’ll both go to Mexico, which will save you the cost of deporting him and allow you to take care of me.
“No matter what happens, he’s my husband, and we’ll never abandon each other. This bond is that strong.”
In a separate post, he tagged the president and said: “4 years ago, he said he would look at my case. @realDonaldTrump, will you ever answer and make this right? Please just sign my clemency.”
He has also started a “Free Joe Exotic” petition on Change.org, which currently has 25,800 signatures out of a 35,000-signature goal.
“How does a normal person like you or me win in this system? We don’t- and there are tens of thousands of people sitting in federal prison that just could not afford a proper defense,” the description reads.
The former zookeeper gained global fame from the Netflix documentary Tiger King, which depicts his years-long feud with Carole Baskin
“The evidence we now have located at www.JoeExoticOfficial.com is overwhelming, and I urge you to go look at the videos of them admitting to perjury and a plot to k*ll me if putting me in prison did not work.
“I pray that President Trump make this right since I am considered a political prisoner all because I was l letting you pet a baby tiger.”
“This dude really loves getting married,” one reader quipped
