Third time might be the charm for the big cat charmer — Joe Exotic announced Tuesday that he’s married again, this time to a fellow inmate.
The 62-year-old “Tiger King” star, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado, announced Tuesday on social media that he and his fiancé had tied the knot.
“Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado,” Exotic captioned a photo of the jailbirds-turned-lovebirds. The apparently Photoshopped image shows the newlyweds in black tuxedos and white baseball caps, standing beneath a floral archway.
Exotic is serving a 21-year sentence at FMC Fort Worth for multiple charges. He was resentenced in early 2022 on animal cruelty charges as well as for trying to hire two different men to kill big cat activist Carole Baskin.
The tiger enthusiast announced in October that he was engaged. “Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33,” Exotic posted at the time. “He is so amazing and is from Mexico.”
Exotic, who is eligible for release in 2026, shared that after the jailbirds-turned-lovebirds married, he’d try to get asylum for his new husband, who KTUL reports is serving time for having entered the country illegally. If the couple can’t get asylum for Flores Maldonado, who is set to be released this year, Exotic said they intend to flee the U.S. once they’re free men.
Never been more proud of someone.
Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado pic.twitter.com/0Ee6lfxBSR— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) April 22, 2025
Exotic, a former polygamist, has been married at least twice prior, with some outlets reporting him as having five former husbands, including two who overlapped. Exotic filed to divorce “Tiger King” co-star Dillon Passage in 2022 and finalized the following year, in the hopes he could marry then-fellow inmate John Graham.
Originally Published: April 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT
