Tiger King star Joe Exotic ‘self-isolating due to coronavirus’ in prison, husband says
‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic was jailed for trying to have an animal rights activist murdered. (Netflix)
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, otherwise known as Joe Exotic from the Netflix docu-series Tiger King, is “on a COVID-19 isolation because of the previous jail he was at, there were cases”, his husband said.
Exotic’s fourth husband, 24-year-old bartender Dillon Passage, told Andy Cohen, who recently recovered from the novel virus himself, on his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, that Exotic was in isolation due to coronavirus cases at his previous jail.
Chatting from his home in Florida and “laying on a hammock in the sun” under his own quarantine, Passage said: “We speak, like, three to five times every day,
“But since he’s been moved to this new facility they are putting him on, like, 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.”
Tiger King star in coronavirus quarantine for 14 days.
Cohen then asks for Passage to clarify that Exotic is, in fact, “in his own COVID-19 quarantine right now?”
“From what I know,” Passage replied, “yes.”
Exotic was recently moved from the Grady County Jail in Oklahoma to Federal Medical Center, a 1,500-inmate facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
The former tiger wrangler was isolated as a safety precaution upon his arrival at the prison, Entertainment Tonight reported.
Exotic is serving a 22-year prison sentence for two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 other wildlife-related charges.
During the 14-day quarantine, the publication claimed, he’s not allowed to make any telephone calls or check and send emails.
Quarantine measures are a familiar sight for federal prisons as the Bureau of Prisons announced Wednesday inmates will be confined to cells for a two-week period.
How did Joe Exotic and Dillon Passage meet?
Grindr, of course.
The pair met up at Exotic’s restaurant, The Safari Bar, where Exotic, uh, serenaded Passage by singing “This Old Town” on karaoke to him.
Dillon Passage. (Instagram)
Two weeks later, they were married.
“We definitely jumped the gun, I can say that,” Passage said. “But I’m not ashamed of it whatsoever.”
He added: “He’s been with my through my darkest times, and I’m not going to just dip out and abandon him when he needs me most.”
Passage also revealed that, at the time when they got married, his mother was the same age as Exotic and was a little stunned at first, but were all “very open” to him.
