Tiger King: Murder, Madness, and Mayhem subject Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage has officially filed for divorce from husband Dillon Passage, which comes a year after Dillon claimed the two were seeking a divorce, per TMZ. The pair have been married for just over four years, having gotten married in December of 2017, two months after Exotic’s former husband Travis Maldonado accidentally shot himself and died. Just earlier this year, Maldonado-Passage was resentenced to 21 years in prison due to his attempts to hire someone to murder Carole Baskin in response to a years-long rivalry, which was one of the focuses of Netflix’s Tiger King series.
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“While it was rumored that Mr. Passage had filed for divorce almost a year ago upon his public announcement on social media, Mr. Passage failed to serve his husband and did not follow through with obtaining a divorce through the legal system,” a press release on behalf of Maldonado-Passage reads, per Entertainment Tonight. The release notes that Maldonado-Passage “has tried to obtain information about Mr. Passage and his whereabouts so that the two could enter into what he hopes to be an amicable divorce, but so far, his attempts to get Mr. Passage to contact him have failed.”
Passage’s manager shared in a statement with PEOPLE, “Dillon is pleased to get some finality to the divorce. Previously, his attorneys drafted the necessary paperwork on two separate occasions which were not signed by and then ignored by Joe. Dillon is happy to get some closure and welcomes progress toward his request for divorce to Joseph Maldonado.”
Maldonado-Passage’s lawyer shared, “Joe is nearing the end of his cancer treatment and has fallen in love. He has no ill will toward Dillon, but has been trying for a while to reach him to get a divorce settlement. My understanding is that both Joe and Dillion have moved on romantically and they should both have the freedom to love again free from the bonds of marriage.”
Court documents claim that the pair’s relationship is “irretrievably broken” and that Maldonado-Passage is seeking alimony in the wake of the divorce.
Just last month, Peacock debuted the TV series Joe vs. Carole, which chronicled the feud between Exotic and Baskin. Stay tuned for details on Tiger King updates.
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