The 'Tiger King' star detailed his relationship in a letter sent from his federal prison in North Carolina.
Joe Exotic is bewitched by his new fiancé, John Graham. TMZ published a letter sent from the Tiger King star, which detailed their relationship, including how they met, how often they speak and the witchcraft Graham practices -- something Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, likened to the mystical powers of the Cullen family in Twilight.
In the letter, sent from Maldonado-Passage's North Carolina prison, the reality TV star tells his attorney, Autumn Blackledge, that he met Graham following his release from solitary confinement, when they were housed in the same prison unit. The pair started seeing each and by August 2021, Maldonado-Passage says the pair was engaged.
While Maldonado-Passage is still behind bars, it appears that Graham is a free man, with the 59-year-old sharing that he speaks to Graham on the phone three times a day, in addition to the litany of letters they write each other.
What sets Graham apart from Maldonado-Passage's ex, Dillon Passage, seems to be Graham's old soul. Maldonado-Passage tells Blackledge that Graham "talks like he is from 400 years ago," and is a practicing witch. He said their relationship is the closest thing to Twilight as you can get.
Maldonado-Passage went on to call his soon-to-be ex-husband "selfish, younger, all about a party wanting to be famous," adding that Graham is "real" and doesn't care about being in the public eye.
As far as a wedding between the pair? Maldonado-Passage is hoping he and Graham can tie the knot as soon as his divorce from Passage is final -- but it sounds like there's a few things to work out still, with Maldonado-Passage calling the terms his ex is offering in their divorce "extortion."
He also has hopes of having his case heard on appeal and believes his attorneys will be able to make that happen based on "new evidence" he's claiming has been obtained in his favor.
Maldonado-Passage's letter comes just weeks after ET learned Graham was the reason he filed for divorce from Passage in March.
"Joe's new love interest is a man named John Graham, and the prison romance is the reason Exotic recently filed divorce docs from jail," Blackledge told ET.
With Maldonado-Passage adding, "God works in amazing ways."
In court docs previously obtained by ET shortly after his divorce filing, Maldonado-Passage said that his and Passage's marriage is "irretrievably broken." Maldonado-Passage is requesting alimony in the divorce, as well as for Passage to be dropped from his name, the docs show.
Passage's attorneys, Chris Kirker and Holly Davis, told ET that Passage is just as "eager" to finalize the divorce.
"Dillon is eager to finalize the divorce, contrary to Joe’s version of the story," Passage's attorney's shared. "We started negotiating a divorce settlement in September of 2021 with Joe's previous lawyer, but chose to hit pause on moving forward when Joe announced his cancer diagnosis, out of respect for his health."
Maldonado-Passage, who revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis in November, went on to share in his letter that he has 16 treatments of radiation left before finding out if he is in remission, adding that despite losing lots of weight and muscle due to the treatments, he will "bounce back."
In January, Maldonado-Passage was resentenced to 21 years in prison by a federal judge in Oklahoma for his 2017 murder-for-hire case involving Carole Baskin.
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