The Tiger King is engaged while caged.
Joseph Allen Maldonado, better known as Joe Exotic from the 2020 Netflix series “Tiger King,” said he found love at the FMC Fort Worth prison again. He’s serving a 21-year sentence on charges including animal cruelty and solicitation of murder against a fellow exotic animal collector.
“Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33,” Exotic posted on social media along with a photo. “He is so amazing and is from Mexico.”
The 61-year-old convict claims his and Marquez’s plan is to tie the knot in prison and get asylum for Marquez. If that doesn’t pan out, the pair hope to flee the U.S. once they’re released from prison. Exotic will be eligible for release in 2036.
“Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago,” Exotic wrote.
Exotic told Entertainment Weekly by phone that he and Maldonado set Dec. 12 as the date by which they’d like to have their marriage license approved.
Florez is set to be released around the middle of next year. He’s in the country illegally, according to ABC affiliate KTUL.
Exotic has been married twice. His first husband died from an unintentional gunshot wound. He was divorced from his second husband, “Tiger King” co-star Dillon Passage, in 2021. Exotic said after that divorce he’d met an inmate named John Graham in prison, whom he hoped to marry. Graham was soon after released from FMC Fort Worth, according to Exotic.
