Joe Exotic had a 'secret wife' and his son featured in 'Tiger King', reveals ex-producer
It seems like the drama around Tiger King’s central character Joe Exotic’s life is not ending anytime soon as new details have emerged about the big cat owner’s controversial life.
The 57-year-old’s former producer has now claimed that Exotic had a "secret wife" and he also has an adult son.
TV producer Rick Kirkham, who also appeared in the Netflix’s original docuseries, claimed during a live stream Q&A session with journalist Per Sundnes that Exotic was married to a woman years ago and had fathered a son named, Brandon Chappell, who is now 38-year-old.
He also revealed that Exotic had fathered Chappell with his girlfriend Kim, before embarking on numerous relationships and marriages with men.
“Very few people realize Joe was married to a woman years before,” Kirkham said. However, he did not make clear that the woman whom Exotic was married to was Kim or someone else, The Sun reported.
Continuing further, Kirkham, who produced the 'Joe Exotic' show for him, said that Exotic’s son Chappell, who now has three children of his own, also made his appearance in ‘Tiger King’.
“He had children and his son came to work at the zoo the summer that I was there, the very first summer. His son Brandon is in the documentary and I’m surprised that the documentary didn’t bring that up. 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,” he 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,” the producer added.
This comes a few days after the niece of the controversial mullet-sporting flamboyant polyamorous star of the show made some shocking allegations about the depths of his cruelty. Chealsi Putman said, “In the ‘Tiger King’ Netflix series, you can see glimpses of his evil persona but in real-life Joe is 100 times worse. I want people to know who the real Joe Exotic is, not the one you've seen on TV.”
Putman, whose mother is Exotic’s youngest sister, also said, “Our relationship was up and down, mainly because I wouldn't put up with his bulls**t. I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of safety or for a life-saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to.”
She also accused Exotic of illegally selling countless tiger cubs. “He would either take cash under the table for the sale of the tiger or if someone sent a check, it would be made out to another person, or if the money was wired to a store, it would be in another person's name. Joe always attempted to distance himself from any illegal activity, but he had no problem involving his employees in it,” Putman added.
Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence for plotting to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin in 2017 along with umpteen wildlife violations.