Joe Exotic's Ex-Husband Has Something To Say About Their Marriage

If you did one thing during quarantine, it was probably watch Netflix's "Tiger King." For those who never got around to it, allow us to fill you in. "Tiger King" is a docu-series that follows the exploits of a man named Joe Exotic (real name Joe Maldonado-Passage), who used to be the proprietor of G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park in Oklahoma. In the docu-series, Exotic's foil was a woman named Carol Baskin who runs a big cat sanctuary (or zoo, depending on who you ask) and whom Exotic alleged killed her husband.

After an alleged murder-for-hire plot (Exotic allegedly hired a hitman to kill Baskin), Exotic ended up in federal prison. As of this writing, he's currently serving a 22-year sentence. Legal drama aside, viewers were fascinated by Exotic's relationships. Joe was married to a man named John Finlay, then years later, the pair married another man named Travis Maldonado.

Finlay eventually left Exotic for a woman, and Maldonado died after accidentally shooting himself. Exotic was married to a younger man, however, he's now in the midst of a divorce. Finlay, who remains married to a woman, is finally speaking out about his time with Exotic, and it's definitely raising some eyebrows.

As the saying goes, don't believe everything you see on TV. And we have to imagine "Tiger King" star John Finlay would agree, at least based on a May 2021 interview with The Sun. Finlay told the outlet that the infamous marriage between himself, Joe Exotic, and Travis Maldonado was completely fake, claiming that it was all a scheme cooked up to land Exotic his own reality TV show. 

That's not to say that the entire relationship was fake because it wasn't, but according to Finlay, it was a lot less romantic than Exotic would have viewers believe. Finlay described himself as "young and dumb and didn't know a nail from a hole in the wall" when he first became involved with Exotic. Years later, he more or less writes their relationship off as the result of his "try anything once" attitude.

As previously mentioned, Exotic is currently behind bars, and Finlay is happily married to a woman named Stormey. "I've never felt this way about anyone before," he gushed. "I had no idea what it is like to marry your rock, your soulmate, the person you spend every minute of the day with."

"Stormey completes me, and we are deeply in love," he added. It seems like he's definitely moved on from his, shall we say, complicated relationship with Exotic.