Joe Exotic of Netflix’s ‘Tiger King’ placed in COVID-19 isolation, husband says

Joe “Exotic” Maldonado-Passage – the star of Netflix’s new hit docuseries “Tiger King,” who is currently serving time in prison for a murder-for-hire plot among other charges – has been placed in coronavirus isolation, his husband said in an interview this week.

Dillon Passage, Maldonado-Passage’s husband, told Andy Cohen that his husband had been placed in isolation at his current facility after cases of the virus were reported at the previous jail he was serving time in. 

While Passage told Cohen that he and husband usually talk several times a day, he said he has yet to speak to him since he was moved to the new facility. 

“We speak three to five times every day,” he told Cohen. “But since he’s been moved to this new facility, they are putting him on a 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.” 

According to NBC News, Maldonado-Passage is currently being held at the FMC Fort Worth, a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison earlier this year for his role in a murder-for-hire plot that targeted Carole Baskin, the founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue, who is also featured in the Netflix series, in addition numerous wildlife violations. 

Maldonado-Passage has drawn viral attention online since the release of the new series, which followed his life as the owner of a private zoo and his eventual prison sentence.