- Joe Exotic, or Joseph Allen Maldonado, is a media personality and businessman
- Exotic shot to fame on the Netflix series Tiger King – he has married 3 times
- He ran Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park – Exotic remarried in April 2025
The number of Joe Exotic husbands just grew – but who has the Tiger King star married so far and who is his latest partner? We take a look.
Exotic is once again in the news. This time, it is not for his activities with tigers, but yet another marriage. The 62-year-old, starred in Tiger King, a Netflix series in 2020 that explored the breeding of big cats and the exploration of Exotic and his Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park.
The series went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic, which shot Exotic to mainstream fame. A second season of the documentary series aired.
Exotic was convicted of hiring two men to murder his rival, Carole Baskin, 63, an outspoken woman who is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, in 2019. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison (he is currently serving the sentence).
Tigers and crime aside, a big part of Exotic’s controversial documentary was his marriage – should we say marriages? The Tiger King star has been married multiple times to younger men, and most recently married Jorge Flores Maldonado, someone he met while serving time.
Read more: Stranger Things 5: Fans will be “devastated”
But who, before his recent marriage, has he dated and married? Keep reading to find out.
Joe Exotic husbands: a dating history
Brian Rhyne – 1980s-2001
Exotic first dated Brian Rhyne sometime before his fame in the 1980s.
They met at the Round-Up Saloon Bar in Dallas and married unofficially. At the time, Exotic worked as a security guard at the bar. He and Rhyne did not officially marry as they couldn’t.
Unfortunately, Rhyne died in 2001 because of complications associated with HIV.
J.C. Hartpence – 2002-2003
In 2002, Exotic met J.C. Hartpence, an events producer, a year after Rhyne died. Since he had experience in events, the men developed a travelling tiger magic show, but their wedded (or lack thereof) bliss did not last long.
The relationship became toxic, as Hartpence had different aspirations for Exotic’s wild animal park. Reports allege that Exotic threatened Hartpence with a photo of one of their tigers eating meat and implied that it would be him if he didn’t get it together.
Later, Hartpence had threatened Exotic with a gun to his head, and the man called the police and had him arrested. Now Hartpence is serving time in jail for another murder and has other dark convictions, according to reports.
John Finlay – 2003 – 2014
Finlay was hired by Exotic in 2003 at 19 years old to help run the zoo and the on-the-road show. Exotic married Finlay in 2014 alongside Travis Michael Maldonado in a three-way ceremony.
After less than a year of marriage, Finlay desired to end the relationship. Allegedly, this was because of Exotic’s controlling and possessive nature, and eventually, he left. Later, he married a woman and had a child, so all ended well for at least one of the husbands.
Now Finlay runs his own Facebook page, which gives updates on his life, and shows him with his wife.
Travis Michael Maldonado 2013 – 2017
Exotic met Travis Michael Maldonado when he began working at the zoo in 2013, at age 19. Their wedding ceremony with Finlay was documented and can be seen in a behind-the-scenes video for Joe Exotic TV.
Tragically, one day in 2017, Maldonado died of an accidental suicide. He accidentally shot himself in the zoo’s gift shop where he had worked. While trying to prove a point about how his gun would not fire without a magazine he’d placed to cover the gun, the gun fired because there was a bullet there, and he passed.
Exotic honored his late husband on Instagram and spoke about his passing, although he has since remarried.
Dillon Passage 2017 – 2023
Disturbingly, Exotic met Dillon Passage shortly after his husband’s passing. Passage and Exotic married two months after Travis’ death and moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida. Articles allege that Passage said Exotic abused him and stopped him from seeing his family.
In March 2021, it was announced that the couple were seeking a divorce, which was finalized in January 2023. It appears he is now engaged to a man called John Devarti, who is a Navy veteran, according to his Instagram.
Joe Exotic marries Jorge Flores Maldonado, 2024 – present
Finally, his current husband! Exotic posted a photo of himself and his husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado, on 21 April. He wrote on X, “Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado”.
Never been more proud of someone.
— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) April 22, 2025
Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado pic.twitter.com/0Ee6lfxBSR
Previously, he announced their engagement in October 2024, and revealed that Flores was 33 years old and a fellow prison inmate.
A few days before the announcement of their marriage, Exotic gushed over his husband on Instagram, writing: “He has gotten me through so much fighting cancer under these conditions. All I pray to God for is that Trump will allow me to enjoy a little life outside with him before it’s too late. I love you, Jorge, you are my life”.
And there you have it – a round-up of Exotic’s relationships. How long do we think this marriage will last?
