‘Tiger King’ Star Joe Exotic Marries Fellow Inmate in Prison

Joe Exotic has married fellow inmate Jorge Flores Maldonado in prison.

The 62-year-old reality star — who is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot against rival Carole Baskin — has found love behind bars with Jorge Marquez and confirmed on Tuesday (April 22) that they have tied the knot.

"Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado," Exotic writes on X.

The reality star previously shared his hopes that making their union official would give his partner a reason not to be deported back to his home country, and that he was ready to follow him to South America if need be.

Exotic previously told Radar Online that, "Whether it helps his immigration status or not, we love each other enough to get married. We even got tattooed matching wedding bands already on."

"What it would do is, it would assure him, and it would show the court, that he has a little bit of financial stability to stay in America."

"It's gonna look better for his asylum case to be married. We're just hoping that the prison will allow us to get married and stay in the same prison."

He told the outlet that if he can't get help from the government to "keep him here," then "I guess I'm going to Mexico."

After announcing their engagement in October last year, Exotic described his fiancé as "so amazing" and admitted he wished he had "met him long" before. Marquez is 33, while Exotic — real name Joseph Maldonado — is 62.

The former zoo keeper seemed hopeful late last year that this relationship will turn out better than his previous marriages to Dillon Passage, from whom he finalized his divorce in January 2023, and Travis Maldonado, who died in 2017.

"We love each other very much, spend every minute of the day together," he says of Marquez. "I've been through some s--t in my days."

"I buried two husbands, the third one ran off with 2.6 million bucks from Netflix and left my a-- here, but Jorge is a very amazing young man."