'Tiger King' Star Carole Baskin's Husband 'ALIVE & Well' In Costa Rica After Being Declared Dead In 2002
Jan. 18 2023, Published 9:00 p.m. ET
Tiger King star Carole Baskin's former husband Don Lewis isn't dead after all, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Lewis vanished in 1997, just six years after marrying Baskin in 1991, and was legally declared dead in 2002.
RadarOnline.com has discovered that she first shared the news during a November 2021 interview, which has since picked up traction and taken fans by surprise.
Viewers of the docuseries placed blame on animal rights activist Baskin for Lewis' disappearance with some speculating she could have been involved.
During the gripping Netflix series, zoo operator Joseph Maldonado-Passage (AKA Joe Exotic) accused Baskin of being connected to her ex's death, but she denied the allegations.
Baskin later shed light on her husband's whereabouts while catching up with ITV's This Morning following an update from the Department of Homeland Security.
"One of the really exciting things that came out of Tiger King 2 is that they produced a letter from Homeland Security and it says that a special agent in charge with the FBI at Homeland Security reached out to the sheriff's detective George Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002, because Homeland Security wasn't even around until 2002," Baskin shared.
"And they said that my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica," she added, questioning how he has been able to make ends meet.
"He took about a million dollars down to Costa Rica, I had agreed to let him do that so he could prove to himself that he could make a living," Baskin alleged, claiming that when she allegedly recovered some of the money, a great deal was gone "because the investments he had made were so bad."
Lewis, for his part, has not spoken out to debunk rumors that he died.
Meanwhile, Joe Exotic has been stuck behind bars.
In January 2020, he was sentenced 22 years in federal prison after being convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act.
RadarOnline.com can confirm Exotic was later re-sentenced to 21 years as he began treatment for early stage cancer.