Joe Exotic’s third husband Dillon Passage has revealed that he’s been inundated with X-rated selfies from fans since rising to fame in the hit Netflix show Tiger King.
In a new interview with FUBAR Radio’s Access All Areas, Dillon, 22, also admitted that he sympathised with his 57-year-old husband’s nemesis Carole Baskin, 58, who has faced relentless accusations from her for that she killed her second husband.
He told hosts Joanna Chimonides and Stephen Leng: ‘I’ve definitely received quite a few nudes from people and it’s just like, “keep that to yourself”. I already know what a wiener looks like, I don’t need to see yours too… I’m like delete, swipe!’
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Snap decision: Joe Exotic’s third husband Dillon Passage has revealed that he’s been inundated with X-rated selfies from fans since rising to fame in the hit Netflix show Tiger King
Discussing how his life has changed since the show’s release, he continued: ‘People keep calling me a celebrity and I’m like, I’m just a normal dude. I do everything that everybody else does. It’s not like I’m living in Hollywood or anything like that!
‘It’s definitely been weird, people wanting to take pictures and reaching out to me. I just found there’s a frickin’ Dillon Passage fan page on Instagram! Now I’m just waiting for the hate page, honestly!’
He also spoke about Carole Baskin – who he husband has been jailed for conspiring to murder – admitting that he sympathised with her over accusations she killed her husband Don Lewis, who mysteriously disappeared in 1997.
Love: Joe Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence at Grady County Jail in Oklahoma after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot against his exotic animal rival Carole Baskin, 58
When asked if Joe’s priority was his marriage, tigers, or bringing down foe Carole, Dillon responded: ‘Obviously, him getting Carole caught for killing her husband is a huge thing to him, which, who knows what happened.
‘The investigators could either find something or they couldn’t. It’s really up in the air. If they do then they do and if they don’t then I kind of feel for her because everyone’s been saying she’s killed her husband and if she didn’t then that’s gotta really have an impact on her.
‘I would say Joe’s main priority is his marriage for sure. I think his main goal though once he gets out of jail is to rebuild his reputation because it was totally tarnished and torn to pieces once he got arrested. And he wasn’t able to tell his story until this documentary came out.’
As for how he and Joe keep their marriage alive on either side of the prison bars, Dillon quipped: ‘Obviously we don’t have sex phone calls over his jail stuff!’
Joe is serving a 22-year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiring to kill Carole and he has also faced numerous animal abuse charges – but Dillon insists that his husband would never have harmed his pets.
Rival: Dillon also touched on how Joe is getting on behind bars and said that they are currently focusing on an appeal to free the former zoo owner (pictured Carole Baskin)
He said: ‘I really want to make this clear. When everyone is saying that Joe abused his animals, they are referring to the cub petting and abusing the tiger cubs. But never once did Joe ever lay a hand on one of his animals.
‘If Joe was gonna go every single day, multiple times a day, into a cage with 10-plus big cats, full grown big cats at that, do you really think he would ever walk out alive if he’d been doing that for 15 years?
‘If he once abused them, as in beat them, they would have attacked him immediately… You can see even in the documentary, he will reach his hands through the cages or go into the cages and just rub their faces and they’ll rub all over him. That is love. That is not anything other than that.’
As for who he believes has been responsible for the animal abuse allegations, Dillon stated: ‘It’s the animal rights activists.
‘I mean I understand, cub petting kind of desensitises the animals and a tiger is an exotic animal that belongs in the wild. But that’s what they refer to as abuse, as using the cubs for your own gain.’
Foe: While Joe’s romances were featured on the show, he was also seen repeatedly accusing Carole of killing her second husband Don Lewis, after he mysteriously disappeared in 1997
Last week, Dillon vowed to stick by his ‘romantic and charismatic’ partner during his 22-year prison sentence.
Dillon appeared on UK TV show This Morning, where he discussed hit Netflix documentary Tiger King, while revealing Joe felt ‘excited’ after President Trump said he would ‘look’ at pardoning his prison sentence.
Joe is currently serving imprisoned at Grady County Jail in Oklahoma after being found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot against his exotic animal rival Carole.
Dillon told This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that his husband is excited to ‘see what could happen’, while vowing to stick by his partner throughout his incarceration.
He said: ‘I’m going to stay by Joe’s side, he stood by me, it would show lack of character not to, he doesn’t deserve to be in there [prison] that long.’
Waiting: Dillon has vowed to wait for his husband Joe as he serves as a 22-year prison sentence
While adding: ‘It’s a big deal to have the president address something like that, Joe is a really big Trump supporter so he was really excited to see what could happen.’
Earlier that weeks on SiriusXM, Donald Trump Jr. had called Exotic’s sentence ‘aggressive’ after watching the documentary series in two sittings.
‘Now, I don’t even know exactly what he was charged with… I watched the show, but it was like, I don’t know exactly what he was guilty of or wasn’t,’ Trump Jr. said.
‘It doesn’t seem like he was totally innocent of anything. But when they’re saying, “We’re putting this guy away for 30 years,” I’m saying that seems sort of aggressive.’
When a reporter brought up his son’s comments, Trump commented: ‘Which son? It must be Don. I had a feeling it was Don.’
What! Joe and Dillon raised eyebrows when they announced their engagement just two weeks after the death of his late husband Travis Maldonado (pictured)
‘I know nothing about it,’ Trump admitted, asking the reporter who posed the question, The New York Post’s Steven Nelson, to describe Exotic’s crimes. He then said he’d take a look.
During last week’s TV interview, Dillon also touched on how Joe is getting on behind bars and said that they are currently focusing on an appeal to free the former zoo owner.
He said: ‘I don’t think you can say anyone is doing good if they’re in jail, but we’re doing our best. We’ve got an appeal coming up, which could take around a year.’
The TV star discussed what attracted him to Joe, and said: ‘I mean who isn’t going to want to be around baby tigers, it’s a whole different world. But the first time I met Joe was at a bar and he sang me one of his songs.
He also described what he was like off camera, adding: ‘He’s a pretty wild character, the series really showed his eccentric sides but behind the camera he’s sweet and sensitive, he would have done anything for anyone.’
Chat: Dillon, 22, appeared on UK TV show This Morning last week, where he was interviewed by Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford
‘The producers wanted to get across that he’s charismatic and doesn’t care what people think, but behind the cameras he’s really sweet and romantic. He woke me up with coffee and a croissant each morning.’
Joe and Dillon raised eyebrows when they announced their engagement just two weeks after the death of his late husband Travis Maldonado in December 2017.
The couple married in a small ceremony which was attended by Travis’ mother Cheryl, who has claimed she felt used and disregarded by Joe once she had given his new relationship her blessing.
Travis, who married Joe in a polygamous ceremony, shot himself in the head after he became convinced his gun wouldn’t fire a round in the chamber without a clip.
Dillon said: ‘When I met Joe I was in a dark place, he kept me away from the negative aspects and people and he was lonely and needed a companion.
‘Initially it was companionship, he needed company and I needed someone to keep me away from the bad things.’
Tiger King tells the story of a zoo owner, [Joe], who spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in the true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding.
While Joe reportedly loves the docuseries, and the fame it’s brought him, his nemesis Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole has been receiving death threats over the allegations she murdered her millionaire first husband Don Lewis, who went missing in 1997.
Meanwhile, Netflix recently released Tiger King bonus episode entitled The Tiger King and I, which reunited eight people featured in its No. 1 docuseries.
The biggest revelation was when TV producer Rick Kirkham told host Joel McHale that former GW zoo owner Joe is actually ‘terrified of big cats.’
Doing their best: He said, ‘I don’t think you can say anyone is doing good if they’re in jail, but we’re doing our best. We’ve got an appeal coming up, which could take around a year’