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V.Lee39 min ago

Over-the-top reality star Joe Exotic — from the Netflix show Tiger King — is hearing wedding bells... again. Exotic, who is currently serving time in Federal Medical Center prison in southeast Fort Worth, says he's become engaged.

In a social media post shared to X on October 28, Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado, announced his engagement to a fellow inmate named Jorge Marquez. It's a wild and unexpected twist in the never-ending saga.

Marquez is a 33-year-old immigrant serving time for illegal immigration charges. Exotic is serving a 21-year sentence for animal abuse and murder-for-hire charges.

He submitted a marriage application to the prison that has yet to be approved and shared he hopes to take the next steps to marriage soon.

"He is so amazing and is from Mexico," Exotic wrote in his post. "Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out. Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago."

Joe Exotic and fiance Jorge MarquezTwitter

Exotic was previously married to Travis Maldonado, who died after accidentally shooting himself in 2017, according to the Associated Press . A second marriage, this time with Dillon Passage — a relationship that played out through the Tiger King series — ended once Passage divorced Exotic in 2021.

According to a " news release " from Exotic's website, he "has high hopes that he will walk out of prison about the same time Jorge does in mid-2025- with the prayers of God and the hard work of attorneys Rodger Roots, John Pierce, and John Phillips."

For an extra sprinkle of shock, he also requests a pardon from either President Joe Biden or "whoever wins on November 5, 2024."

In 2019, Exotic was convicted of 21 counts, including wildlife crimes and two murder-for-hire charges in a plot to kill fellow Tiger King star and owner of Big Cat rescue, a sanctuary for wild cats, Carole Baskin. He was sentenced to 22 years in 2020. At the time, Baskin ran her sanctuary in Tampa, Florida before closing it in 2023. Exotic was later re-sentenced to 21 years in 2021 in U.S. appeals court, according to CBS News .

Before heading to prison in Fort Worth, Exotic was the zookeeper at G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, where he kept tigers (obviously), lions, and other wildlife.

The Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth, where Exotic is serving his time has been around since 1930. It's part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that Congress established that year with 11 prisons.

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