Netflix star Joe Exotic, 61, engaged to 33-year-old man in prison

Tiger King star Joe Exotic, 61, has announced he’s engaged to a 33-year-old man, which marks his second engagement behind bars.

Joe Exotic, star of the Netflix docuseries Tiger King, has announced his engagement to a fellow inmate who is 28 years younger than him.

The 61-year-old, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 21-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. He recently shared on X that he has begun a relationship with 33-year-old Jorge Marquez.

In his post, which included a photo of the couple, Exotic introduced Marquez, saying, “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.”

Joe Exotic has revealed he's engaged to a young man he met in prison.

Exotic also expressed a desire for both him and Marquez to be pardoned, stating, “Yep. Took me 61 years to find him now I got to convince [Donald] Trump to let me keep him in America.” Marquez is reportedly serving time for immigration-related issues, according to CBS News.

In a phone call from prison, Exotic confirmed the engagement to Entertainment Weekly, revealing, “We filed our official papers for the marriage license from the prison yesterday, so we’re just waiting for approval. He has picked out December 12 as the date we’re hoping to get this approved by.” He explained that the license needs approval from the warden, a psychiatric officer, and the chaplain.

Exotic shot to fame in Netflix’s Tiger King, released in 2020. Picture: Netflix US / AFP

This marks Exotic’s third relationship and second engagement while incarcerated in three years. Previously, he dated another inmate, John Graham, but their relationship ended shortly after Graham was released. In the same year, he became engaged to Seth Posey, though that engagement also ended soon after.

Exotic famously had an unofficial three-way marriage with long-time partner John Finlay and then 19-year-old Travis Maldonado, which was shown in Tiger King. Picture: Netflix

Exotic has been married five times, with his most recent spouse being Dillon Passage, who appeared in Tiger King. Passage filed for divorce in 2021.

In 2019, Exotic was sentenced to 21 years in prison for 19 counts of wildlife crimes and two counts of conspiracy to murder animal rights activist Carole Baskin.

Earlier this year, he made headlines again by expressing his attraction to Machine Gun Kelly, joking about winning him over with “a tiger and a bit of meth.”

This story originally appeared on Decider and was reproduced with permission