Joe Exotic, star of Netflix’s series Tiger King and currently serving a 21-year-sentence in prison, has announced his marriage to Jorge Marquez.

In a post to X on April 22, the Oklahoma zookeeper shared a photo of himself and his husband with the caption, “Never been more proud of someone.”

Joe Exotic, whose birth name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, continued, “Meet my husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado.”

Joe Exotic, 62, first announced his relationship with Marquez in October 2024 when he shared on Instagram that the two had gotten engaged while in prison. His caption at the time introduced, “Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33,” adding, “He is so amazing and is from Mexico.”

The caption continued, “Now, the quest of getting married in person and getting him asylum or we [will] be leaving America when we both get out…Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.”

In an interview with EW at the time, Joe Exotic shared, “We filed our official papers for the marriage license from the prison yesterday, so we’re just waiting for approval…[we need] to be approved by the warden and psychiatry and the chaplain.”

He continued, “We love each other very much and spend every minute of the day together…I’ve been through some s— 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.”

Joe Exotic’s viral 2020 TV show saw him sentenced to 23 years in prison for the murder-to-hire plot against Carole Baskin, his animal rights activist nemesis. His sentence was reduced to 21 years in January 2022.

Joe Exotic was previously married to Travis Maldonado between the years of 2015 and 2017, but their relationship ended abruptly when Maldonado accidentally shot himself and died. Two months following Maldonado’s death, Joe Exotic married Dillon Passage. The pair split in 2021.

Last week, Joe Exotic added an affectionate Instagram post expressing the extent of his feelings for Marquez, writing, “He has gotten me through so much fighting cancer under these conditions…I love you Jorge, you are my life.”

Marquez and Joe Exotic are presently being held at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Article by Baila Eve Zisman

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