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'Tiger King' Joe Exotic Gushes about New Husband, Fellow Inmate Jorge Marquez
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Gay impresario Joe Exotic of "Tiger King" fame has married for the third time, tying the knot with a fellow inmate even as he serves a two-decade sentence.
"On Monday, April 21, the 'Tiger King' star, 62, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, announced that he had tied the knot with Jorge Marquez," People Magazine reported.
"He shared a photo on X of himself and his new husband on Tuesday, April 22, to mark the milestone."
Posting separately on Instagram, Exotic wrote that Marquez "has gotten me through so much fighting cancer under these conditions. "
Added the former animal park owner, "I love you Jorge you are my life."
In an April 23 followup post, the reality show star and convict explained, "There was no wedding. We had attorneys do it by proxy 5 months ago." He also explained in various posts that the wedding photo he used was created using Photoshop and that a widely used image purporting to be of his wedding with Marquez was generated using AI.
"Exotic posted back in October after he'd announced his engagement that he was working on 'getting [Marquez] asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out,'" the New York Post detailed.
In his posts, Joe Exotic kept up his so-far-unsuccessful lobbying for a presidential pardon. Explaining that Marquez has been in the U.S. for a decade, Exotic posted, "if Trump would consider signing my clemency I would work my ass off to give him the first 5 million for Jorge to have a gold card which should not take me 6 months to pay for, but I need President Trump to see that everyone that testified against me admitted to perjury and a plot to kill me on world television on season 2 of Tiger King and allow me to go home and work to pay for a gold card."
"In response to one social media user wishing him luck in his case appeal Tuesday, Maldonado said he has 'no problem going to Mexico' with his new husband if released," the New York Post relayed.
His marriage to Marquez marks the third time Joe Exotic has married.
"The convicted felon had previously married Dillon Passage in December 2017 – just two months after Exotic's previous husband, Travis Maldonado, died in a self-inflicted, accidental shooting," the Post detailed. "They split in 2020."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
