Joe Exotic has tied the knot behind federal bars. This week, the Tiger King star announced his marriage to fellow inmate Jorge Marquez.
Exotic and Marquez’s engagement was announced last fall, and though the exact timing of when and how they were married are unknown, Exotic has shared AI-generated photos of the two in tuxedos on social media. “Never been more proud of someone,” he wrote. “Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.”
Marquez, 34, is from Mexico, and reportedly met Exotic after he was apprehended entering the United States illegally. He ultimately ended up being held at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas where Exotic was also incarcerated, and the two allegedly struck up a romantic relationship.
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On Twitter last year, Exotic wrote that after their marriage, the couple would be focusing on “getting him asylum or we be [sic] leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.”
Expanding on Instagram, Exotic wrote this week, “[Marquez] has gotten me through so much fighting cancer under these conditions. All I pray to God for is Trump woll allow me to enjoy a little life outside with him before it’s too late. I love you Jorge you are my life.”
In January 2020, two months before the initial premiere of Tiger King, Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire in a plot to kill rival big cat enthusiast Carole Baskin. In 2021, he was diagnosed with “aggressive cancer.”
In recent years, Exotic has campaigned for his own pardon, and to that end, has frequently tried to get Donald Trump’s attention (including asking to be named the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service). He’s also kept a steady stream of content coming online, including several recent usages of AI — he even shared a new, AI-sung country song, “Shadows into Light,” in honor of his marriage to Marquez. Stream it below.
Never been more proud of someone.
Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado pic.twitter.com/0Ee6lfxBSR— Joe Exotic (@joe_exotic) April 22, 2025
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