Joe Exotic doesn’t know that his husband’s death features in the new Netflix series ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’.
Travis Maldonado died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2017 and although the documentary does not show his death, it features his horrified co-worker Joshua Dial’s reaction after Maldonado shot himself in their office.
Joe – whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage – is currently serving 22 years in prison after being found guilty in 2019 for paying a man $3,000 to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin and his current husband Dillon Passage can’t bring himself to tell Joe that Travis’ death features in the documentary.
He told Entertainment Tonight: "I feel like some things shouldn’t have been shown in the docuseries, like Travis’ accident in the office. I feel like that was very personal to Joe and that it was used for an emotional purpose and to get people more drawn in to the show," Passage explains. "I don’t think that’s fair to Travis. He probably would not have wanted that put all over the world… And I didn’t tell [Joe] that it was in there. I feel like he’s definitely gonna be upset about it, so it’s best that he doesn’t know."
Despite including Travis’ death in the show, Dillon is happy with how the documentary turned out.
He said: "[Filmmakers Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode] were really honest with me from the get go. They said that the documentary was going to be about the big cat underworld so they wanted to see – obviously – about cub selling, cub petting and stuff like that. I don’t feel taken advantage. Because they told Joe’s story true as can be.
"Maybe they left out some of his more sensitive character aspects and kind of made him seem like more of an angry person who was yelling all the time. But he was definitely a wild character and he was very outspoken and he wasn’t scared to share his opinion. And I feel like they showed it."
Joe Exotic doesn’t know Travis Maldonado’s death features in Tiger King
