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The Outrageous Real-Life Personalities of Tiger King: Where Are They Now?

Tiger King

If you’ve just finished binge-watching the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, you are not alone. If you haven’t finished watching and plan to, stop reading now.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Tiger King is TV’s most popular show right now with a 97% critic’s rating and 96% audience score — not to mention, trending as number one across the world, including Australia, on Netflix.

Hailed as “the most disturbing documentary ever” — the series follows the outlandish, wild and downright bizarre story of Joe Exotic, the owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma and Carole Baskin, an animal rights activist.

It’s an epic tale of “drug Lords, polygamy, cults, money, magic and tigers”, and given it’s a documentary, it’s 100% real which makes for some pretty insane viewing.

So where are these crazy cats (LOL) up to now? Keep reading.

Joe Exotic

As the documentary unfolds, so does the horrific hire-to-murder plot of Carole Baskin,  orchestrated by former Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park owner, Joe Exotic (Joe Maldonado-Passage).

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for hiring a hitman for $3,000 to take out his arch-nemesis (Carole Baskin) and in March 2020, he filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Interior and the US Federal Wildlife Service for more than $70,000 for adding “generic tiger” to the endangered species list, targeting businesses like his.

Still married to his fifth husband, Dillon Passage, he is also seeking $15 million from his former business partner, Jeff Lowe, whom he claims planted evidence against him. Wild.

Tiger King
Joe Exotic. Netflix.

Dillon Passage

Exotic’s fourth husband Dillon Passage is still as loved up as ever with the former zoo owner.

In an interview with Andy Cohen, the 22-year-old who got married to Exotic after “a little over two weeks”, revealed that they are indeed, still wed.

“We speak three to five times every day. But since he’s been moved to this new facility, they are putting him on COVID-19 isolation because of the previous jail he was at — there were cases. So I have yet to speak to him since he’s been moved.”

“I do — I do love Joe. He’s been there for me through my darkest times. I’m not just gonna dip out and abandon him when he needs me most.”

The interview delved into a lot more than just their marriage, including the fact that he had no idea a camera crew would be there for their first date.

He also wanted the world to know that the former zoo owner was a “really good guy”.

WATCH: Andy Cohen talks to Tiger King’s Dillon Passage. Story continues after video…

Carole Baskin

Carole Baskin has been the most vocal cast member since the documentary came out, calling it “salacious and sensational” — mostly because it brought up the disappearance of her husband, Don Lewis and her involvement in it.

In a statement, she said: “They devoted an entire segment to 23-year-old lies and innuendos suggesting I was involved in my husband Don’s 1997 disappearance.”

The now 59-year-old continues to run the Big Cat Rescue animal sanctuary in Florida, with her third husband, Howard Baskin.

Tiger King
Howard and Carole Baskin. Netflix.

John Finlay

John Finlay was married to Maldonado-Passage, however, during the series, we learned that he was in fact straight and went on to impregnate one of the park’s female employees.

Along with his current wife, Stormey Sanders, the pair now run a Facebook page called The Truth About John Findlay — with a video of the man himself to prove it’s really him.

These days, Finlay is a welder and has a brand new pair of teeth, which according to him, producers omitted from telling people the great news.

Joe Finlay
Joe Finlay. Netflix.

Bhagavan “Doc” Antle

Bhagavan “Doc” Antle founded The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.) and is very active on social media.

Addressing his 417k followers (at the time of publication) in a now-deleted statement, he expressed his disappointment “that our facility was mentioned in the new Netflix series.”

“We can only assume it is because Doc Antle has been such a high profile wildlife personality for so many decades that his association would create more buzz.”

Jeff Lowe

Maldonado-Passage’s former business partner, Jeff Lowe, is still running the Greater Wynnewood Zoo alongside his wife, Lauren.

The couple plan to open a zoo in Oklahoma later this year and frequents his organisation’s socials with gems like this:

Rick Kirkham

Rick Kirkham, a former Inside Edition reporter who filmed Maldonado-Passage’s reality TV web series called Joe Exotic, Tiger King, always had high hopes for the outlandish “gay, gun-carrying redneck with a mullet”.

His footage, which was filmed on the zoo property, was used in the Netflix series, and often showed Maldonado-Passage talking regularly about wanting Baskin dead.

According to various reports, he is currently living in Norway with his wife and they are working on another documentary together.

Rick Kirkham
Rick Kirkham. Netflix.