On April 2, 2020, reports circulated on social media that Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic from the Netflix documentary "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," had contracted COVID-19 coronavirus disease while in prison.
The Mirror, for instance, published an article entitled: "Netflix's Tiger King star Joe Exotic hospitalised after contracting coronavirus in prison."
This report was not accurate.
The Mirror later updated its headline so it made a less definitive claim, writing that Exotic could have contracted the virus, but was not officially diagnosed with disease.
This rumor started after Exotic was moved to the Fort Worth Federal Medical Center. Dillon Passage, Exotic's husband, told radio host Andy Cohen that Exotic had been put into isolation at the new facility after someone at the jail where he was previously held had tested positive for COVID-19.
Passage said, "We speak like three to five times every day, but [not] since he's been moved to this new facility; they are putting him on a COVID-19 isolation because of the previous jail he was at, there were cases."
Passage did not say that Exotic himself had tested positive for the disease, only that he was put into quarantine after another prisoner had contracted the disease.
You can watch Passage's interview below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=R7CEN_iaYC0
The Facebook page for Exotic posted the following message:
Joe DOES NOT have the COVID-19 virus, he’s in a 14-day quarantine because he was transferred from another facility.
Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison for animal abuse charges and for his involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme.
As of this writing, Exotic has not been officially diagnosed with COVID-19.