Joe Exotic’s ex-husband, John Finlay, claimed this week that his marriage to the Netflix star and another man was a “fake” to help wrangle a reality TV show — revealing that he’s now married to a woman.
Finlay told the Sun that he was, “young and dumb and didn’t know a nail from a hole in the wall,” at 19 when he first met the flamboyant “Tiger King” star on his first day at work at Joe's Oklahoma big cat zoo. Now 37, he put their fling down to him being “impressionable” and willing to “try anything once.”
However, he insisted that now-infamous scenes of their 2014 three-way wedding with Travis Maldonado — all wearing garish bright pink shirts — was just a publicity-generating scam.
“The fake one was basically a publicity stunt so Joe could get his own reality TV series,” the welder insisted.
Finlay — who has had his teeth fixed since finding fame on the show — has since cut off contact with Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, who is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence. Finlay can never forget his time with Exotic, however — because he still has several tattoos of his name.
He even had an inking reading “Privately Owned By Joe Exotic” just above John’s groin that he covered with an angry bull’s head. He still has four others, including “Joe” on the right side of his chest and “For My Husband, Joe” on his upper arm.
Exotic, 58, remains in the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, serving 22 years for a murder-for-hire plot on his nemesis, fellow zoo owner Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue.
Exotic’s latest husband, Dillon Passage, announced last month that he is also leaving the jailed reality TV star.