'Tiger King' star Joe Exotic is answering some of viewers' biggest questions from jail.
Tiger King star Joe Exotic is answering some of viewers' biggest questions from jail.
By now, it seems like everyone has heard of Exotic -- whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage -- the extremely colorful star of Netflix's docuseries, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. The Netflix hit follows big cat breeders and trainers across the country, namely, Exotic, who is currently serving 22 years in federal prison after being convicted for allegedly attempting to hire someone to murder Carole Baskin, his longtime nemesis. Baskin, an animal activist, runs the animal sanctuary Big Cat Rescue.
In an interview from jail that Netflix shared on Twitter on Friday, which was done on March 22, Exotic says he's actually done with his intense feud with Baskin.
"I'm done with the Carole Baskin saga," he says over the phone. "It's now time to turn the tables and Joe get out of jail a free man and exonerated from all these charges."
As for how things are with his fourth husband, Dillon, he said the two are still going strong.
"I can't thank my husband enough for standing beside me," he says.
Exotic still has a sense of humor despite being in jail, laughing when asked if he's still going to be "as crazy" as he was before once he gets out of prison.
"That will never change," he says.
"You know, it would be nice if I could actually see me being famous out there," he adds about Tiger King going viral. "But I've seen these same four walls for a year and a half now."
ET learned on Tuesday that Exotic is currently in quarantine while behind bars due to the coronavirus outbreak. He was transferred from a county jail -- where he was being held since his sentencing in January -- to a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Due to concerns surrounding the nationwide COVID-19 outbreak, the Tiger King star was quarantined as a safety precaution upon his arrival at the prison, which is currently a standard procedure for all inmates currently checking into any prison due to the circumstances.
ET has recently spoken to a number of Tiger King's cast members via video chat, including Jeff Lowe and his wife, Lauren Dropla, who discussed their portrayal in the Netflix docuseries. The couple is seen taking over Exotic's zoo prior to his arrest and conviction, but Lowe denied to ET that they set up Exotic.
"We did not do anything. We did not rat on Joe," he insisted. "We did not snitch on Joe."
"It's sad that people think that we set him up, but what we did was we protected ourselves," he continued. "Lauren and I didn't do anything wrong, so I'm not about to take the fall for Joe's crimes. When the feds started investigating Joe and we were tipped off by the confidential informant... we knew that we had no choice. We had to tell them what we knew. We handed them over our cell phones, our bank accounts, whatever they asked for we gave them, cooperated fully."
Watch the video below for more:
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