Name two things that got you through the initial stages of the COVID lockdown. If your answer isn’t dalgona coffee, cloud bread, and Tiger King, you’re doing this life thing right, unlike most of us. Popularised during the lockdown, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness or simply Tiger King is an American true-crime documentary about the transgressions of Joe Exotic.

Joe Exotic- Tiger King, or not?

As iconic as the documentary Tiger King was in its many memes and, quite frankly, fame, it got many things wrong. The series had about 34 million views within 10 days of its release, making it one of the platform’s biggest releases. Netflix released the first season of the series on March 20, 2020, and announced the second one in September of the same year. The second season will be out on November 17, 2021.

All you need to know about Joe Exotic

Joe Exotic was born Joseph Allen Maldonado- Passage in the March of 1963. The man changed his name to Joe Exotic and following the release of the documentary, came to be famously known as Tiger King. Exotic is a popular American media personality, businessman, and convicted felon. He operated the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, a hub of some of the most prolific tiger breeding in the States.

Net Worth

With the success of Tiger King one and the release of Tiger King two and the long elaborate history Joe Exotic has in all things criminal, you might expect him to have quite the shiny penny. But the state is, in fact, the opposite. To sum it up, Tiger King Joe Exotic’s finances are a mess.

Knowing Exotic’s history of bankruptcy, lawsuits, and a concerning number of tiger print clothing with his face printed in weird, random areas, it isn’t a surprise to know that the man’s net worth is next to nothing.

Joe began a good life with about $250k from his grandfather’s trust fund. Then he started a pet shop with his brother, followed by a zoo when the brother died and the many illegal activities that he did in his very zoo. Then came the legal conundrum that started in 2013 and ended in 2018 with his arrest. To sum it up, Joe Exotic’s net worth is ~$0. Earlier, during his peak days, it is said that his net worth was around $10 million – $15 million.

Affairs and scandals

If the number of things we have listed in this article are not strange enough to be deemed “weird”, Joe’s love life jumps a meter over the bar.

The Tiger King is openly gay and despite never marrying most of them, calls his numerous partners his “husbands“. Joe’s first known partner was Brian Rhyne, who died of HIV in 2001. Then came along J C Hartpence. Hartpence and Joe gave each other death threats and authorities eventually arrested Hartpence for putting a gun to Joe’s head.

Then began Joe’s relationship with Travis Maldonado and John Finlay. The three of them got married in a three-partner wedding ceremony. Finlay was again prisoned while Maldonado killed himself. The two fell out due to an increasingly toxic relationship. Then comes Tiger King and Joe’s increase in fame and he conducts a contest called “The Bachelor King”.

10 points for optimism and 11 for confidence.

Controversy

Carole Baskin was the arch-nemesis that led to Joe’s first public controversy. The woman is the reason he went bankrupt. In a very dramatic Hollywood style, Joe apparently told a hitman (who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent) that Baskin had “cost us almost three-quarter of a million dollars in lawyers already.”

To top it all, legal bodies ordered Joe to pay Big Cat Rescue $1 million in damages. It was then that he filed for bankruptcy.

Prison Time

After a feud Joe Exotic had lost, the man went to prison in 2018, 81 days after leaving the zoo. Tiger King has already elaborated on the many crimes of Joe Exotic. The only thing that has changed is his prison time. The man has requested many times to be pardoned. As of the end of 2021, Exotic will be given a new re-sentence after a court order.