Joe Exotic details 'emotional' final moments with prison husband before he was deported to Mexico
Joe Exotic is opening up about his devastating forced separation from his husband after he was deported to Mexico.
Joe (real name: Joseph Allen Maldonado) told TMZ on Thursday that he was feeling 'pretty emotional' after his husband Jorge Marquez Flores was removed from the country.
Jorge was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers shortly after he was released from the same prison where his husband is currently serving a 21-year sentence for attempted murder after trying to hire a hitman to kill his rival Carole Baskin.
His big mistake was offering $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin.
Joe rose to fame from the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness that followed his life as he looked after exotic big cats at his G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma.
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Joe, 62, said he and Jorge were both 'bawling so hard' when they said their goodbyes on Friday morning ahead of Jorge's release.
He admitted that the two 'expected' that Jorge would have trouble with immigration officials, but Joe complained that he 'spent all this money on some of the best immigration lawyers America had to offer' in order to get relief from deportation proceedings for his husband.
According to him, Jorge was supposed to have a hearing about his attempts to seek asylum in the US, but he was whisked away by ICE agents before that could happen once he was released from the Federal Medical Center Fort Worth, where he and Joe had been incarcerated.
Asylum applicants are typically permitted to remain in the US while their request proceeds, but it's unclear where Jorge was in the process, and his criminal status may have made it easier for ICE to deport him.
According to Joe, Jorge was taken to Mexico so quickly that his attorneys didn't even have a chance to see him before he was out of the country.
Jorge was imprisoned in 2024 for 'unlawfully reentering the US from Mexico after previously being deported,' according to The Sun.
In October, after announcing their engagement, Joe said he was working on 'getting asylum or we'll be leaving America when we both get out.'
He doubled down on that claim in answering a comment on social media wishing him luck in his appeal.
Exotic wrote that he has 'no problem going to Mexico' with his husband when released.
Jorge also spoke with TMZ via phone from a friend's house in Mexico and said he hadn't had a chance to speak with his husband since his deportation.
However, he said he had already written multiple letters to the Tiger King star, which he hoped he would be able to read soon.
Jorge also gave a glimpse into their relationship in prison, reportedly saying he and Joe regularly spent time together at the prison library and gym.
The two had different native tongues, but practicing their English and Spanish together was also a bonding experience for them.
Joe also shared some dispiriting updates on his health and the cancer he has been afflicted with.
Though it had previously been in remission, he confirmed that the cancer had begun growing again and it had since spread to his left lung.
He was surprisingly casual about his illness, telling the publication that he wasn't willing to undergo more treatments after he was overwhelmed by the side effects of a year of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
'I just can't do it again,' he admitted.
'Honestly, I would rather go visit my parents and my two dead husband and my brother in heaven,' than be 'in a concrete room puking again,' he added.
Joe said he was feeling well for the time being, and he was trying to stay fit and eat well, so he feared the treatments would just make him feel worse.
'If I die tomorrow, I've had the happiest 10 months of my life,' he declared.
Joe shocked fans last month when he announced he'd married a fellow prisoner.
Speaking to Sydney, Austrailia's 2DayFM's Jimmy & Nath Show, Joe revealed whether the couple had consummated the marriage.
Sharing a photoshopped snap of the couple wearing suits for the big day, he quipped: 'Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.'
Joe shared the news of their engagement back in October, as he told fans: 'Meet Jorge Marquez. He is so amazing and is from Mexico.'
He added: '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.'
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