EXCLUSIVE: Joe Exotic Now Battling Lung AND Prostate Cancer — And Fears Being Torn Away From Mexican Gangbanger Husband If He's Deported
The Tiger King, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado, has revealed he is suffering from multiple forms of cancer.
May 15 2025, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
"Tiger King" Joe Exotic has revealed his prostate cancer has returned – just weeks after he said it was in remission.
And now he has exclusively told RadarOnline.com the cancer has spread to his lungs as well, but he is refusing treatment.
Health Issues
He has decided to forgo treatment until he gets out of prison.
Joe, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, continues to sit behind bars serving a 21-year prison sentence after he was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot of zookeeper rival Carole Baskin twice.
In a wide-ranging interview with RadarOnline.com, the 62-year-old revealed he has some new health issues, including admitting he is not feeling well and has been throwing up.
"The prostate cancer is back out of remission, the lung cancer is there now," he shared with dejection in his voice.
Giving Up The Fight
However, the cancer has spread.
Maldonado revealed he just learned the cancer had returned a few months ago, but after already enduring a year of chemotherapy and radiation, he's not going to accept any more treatment – for now.
"All of the doctors on the outside I've talked to said I can make it another 10 or 15 years without it killing me," he shared. "And I really want to wait until I get out and get some real doctors with some class act medical care and take care of it then."
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021, Maldonado told us in April he was "in remission," but then received the tragic news about the lung cancer diagnosis.
While waiting for his biopsy, Maldonado claimed the cancer diagnosis "advanced" due to "stress" from being in solitary confinement, as well as "the mold and everything else you're living in."
He said at the time: "If this is how I have to live for the next 11 years if I don't win my appeal, I pray to God I hope I go home in a body bag soon. You wouldn't believe how many people die in here before they get care."
Just Married
Maldonado is also fighting to keep his new husband from being deported.
As if the cancer battle wasn't enough, Maldonado is also fighting to keep his new husband in the U.S. The star married fellow inmate Jorge Marquez, and the two had planned to move to Cozumel, Mexico, after his release.
But Maldonado is worried his fiancé, who was recently released from prison, will be sent home much sooner. Marquez is scheduled to have a detention hearing next week and could be deported – something Maldonado said neither of them wants.
"He doesn't want to go back," Maldonado confessed. "Not only because of me, but because it's so dangerous there. He's been through so much s--- already."
"He's been through some sexual abuse, and we've got the police reports from some of that," Maldonado elaborated, adding: "His family is all in America. He only has his dad down there. Everyone else is in America. His mom is dead.
"He just doesn't have anything in Mexico."
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Always An Activist
The Netflix star is serving 21 years after he was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot of zookeeper rival Carole Baskin.
Still, in spite of his health and relationship concerns, Maldonado remains a wild animal activist and is currently in a legal battle with the Black Pines Sanctuary in Albion, Indiana, which is planning to neuter a rare white Bengal tiger this weekend.
He contends neutering or spaying a tiger or any other endangered animal would qualify as an illegal act "to harm or harass or kill," as neutering will "harm the species and harm and harass them by not allowing them to take part in natural behavior of breeding."
Maldonado wants the tigers to be returned to their country of origin and is suing the sanctuary under the Endangered Species Act.
