Joe Exotic’s Husband, Dillon, Speaks Out About Life After ‘Tiger King’
Written by SOURCE on April 1, 2020
If you were wondering, the Tiger King is still married. Getting a 22-year sentence for animal cruelty and conspiring to kill a business rival can’t get in the way of true love.
Good to know.
Dillon Passage, the fourth husband of Tiger King/Joe Exotic, sat down for an exclusive interview that went down Tuesday on Variety Live. Passage’s commentary shouldn’t come as a huge shock given that everybody, from a different husband of the Tiger King to Shaq to that same targeted rival (Carole Baskin), have provided epilogues of sorts since the full series was posted onto Netflix less than two weeks ago.
“We are still married,” the 24-year-old Passage said, despite his 57-year-old spouse receiving a lengthy ass sentence.
“I wasn’t just going to abandon him when he needed help because he was there for me,” Passage explained. “I felt it was only right to stand by him and not judge him for the circumstance because I understood his relationship with Carole. It was a very negative kind of thing and he was in a dark place when all of this stuff occurred. He just needed support so I was just going to stand next to him.”
Passage further says he spoke to Joe just a week ago. He said that the Tiger King isn’t letting imprisonment deter him from enjoying the fame he’s experienced as a result of the series’ big-time success.
“He had received hundreds and hundreds of emails, and he was spending all day on the computer just going through these emails and trying to respond to them,” said Passage. “He had people from all over the world saying like, ‘Team Joe’ [and] ‘Free Joe.’”
He continued: “He was really excited. I would talk to him about some of the memes that were made and he just laughed his butt off. It was hilarious. He loved it. … He loves the attention, obviously, so any fame or spotlight that he has had was greatly appreciated.”
Ever since they last talked, Joe has been transferred from a county jail in Oklahoma to a federal prison in Texas. Passage also said that, when this happened, the series’ star had to go through a two-week quarantine period due to the coronavirus. Passage adds that he doesn’t think his husband has that virus, but it was just a precaution.
From there he went on to recall simpler times, like when the two first met. He said he was won over by a karaoke performance from Joe and a subsequent invitation to his … well, let’s go with “informal” zoo. From that period, he says he never left.
At that time, Passage was a 22-year-old battling a prescription pill addiction. “Joe helped me get healthy again, get me in the right mental state,” he claimed. “I felt alone. I felt like there was going to be nobody there for me. Joe made me feel like there was reason to be alive.”
Passage went on to talk about speculation over the true sexualities of a pair of former husbands, which is a subject discussed in more detail in the seven-part documentary. Specifically, he talks about the role drugs may or may not have played in those romances.
From there, he went on to say he believed the documentary to be “very authentic,” which echoes a theme shared just a few hours ago by former Joe Exotic producer Rick Kirkham.
Passage further says he didn’t know what Joe was up to when his arrest came down, but that he doesn’t believe his husband got a fair trial.
Since things ended, Passage moved to western Florida. That’s where he currently resides. At the moment, he’s an out of work bartender, a situation that’s also been caused by the coronavirus’ spread.
Asked what he’d do if his husband got it, Passage didn’t pass over an opportunity to say something nice.
“I’d go pick him up and he’d come live with me where I’m at [because] this is our house and I have our dog,” he said. “And I think his main goal would be to get his animals back because it was his dream and his brother’s dream to have the zoo and to do something. And he spent 15 years doing it — 15-plus years — and his whole life’s work was just taken away from him like that.”
You can go read the whole thing over at Variety.
Reader's opinions
You may also like
Continue reading
