Tiger King: Joe Exotic has a secret ex-wife and adult son

NZ Herald

14 Apr, 2020 02:58 AM2 mins to read

The Tiger King - Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic. Photo / AP.

Just when you thought the world of "Tiger King" Joe Exotic couldn't get any weirder, a Tiger Prince has been revealed - and an ex-wife.

During a live-streamed Q&A session about the Netflix hit show, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, duped film producer Rick Kirkham shared that a young man who appears in the series is in fact Exotic's son.

Thirty-eight-year-old father of three, Brandon Chappell, is said to have worked at his father Joe Exotic's zoo. According to the Sun, Kirkham claims Chappell took on a job in the first summer that the producer was there shooting footage for his reality TV series.

Tiger King star Joe Exotic. Photo / Supplied.

He says given Chappell appears in the Netflix series, he is "surprised that the documentary didn't bring [the father-son relationship] up."

Instead the relationships Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joe Maldonado-Passage, explored with men were focused on and central to much of the storyline.

Kirkham, whose own documentary endeavours went up in smoke, literally, when a fire broke out in Exotic's recording studio, has also claimed the colourful character was openly cruel to his son.

"Joe treated his son worse than he treated the other employees. He expected more out of him, he expected him to take more leadership and do harder work," the producer said.

"He had his son sweeping the park instead of giving him a decent job, feeding the animals or something like that. It was almost as though he regretted having a child, that he regretted having been married," Kirkham said, referring to Exotic's ex-wife and Brandon's mother, Kim.

The zoo keeper's niece, Chelsea Putman, has also spoken about Chappell in an interview with the Daily Mail.

According to Putman, Exotic was "in and out of Brandon's life when he was growing up.

"Joe would go around telling everyone this was his son, he made no secret about it," she said.

While spin-off series and a rumoured film are in the works, Exotic is commencing a 22-year sentence for multiple violations of wildlife laws and his role in a murder-for-hire plot to kill rival Carole Baskin.