Carole Baskin slams Netflix for ‘made-up feud’ with Joe Exotic: ‘Never even spoken to him’

Tiger King star Carole Baskin made an appearance on This Morning today to discuss her upcoming show – and was sidetracked in the process, making some brow-raising statements.

The big cat lover slammed Netflix, claiming that the streaming platform suggested that Tiger King would be similar to the likes of Blackfish, a 2013 documentary that unravelled the consequences of keeping orcas in captivity.

Baskin claimed that she worked with the Netflix producers for five years. Instead of making Tiger King “about the animals”, they allegedly turned it into a “made-up feud” between Baskin and the show’s infamous protagonist, Joe Exotic.

Joe Exotic is currently in jail, serving out his 22-year sentence NETFLIX

When asked whether she had actually met Exotic, Baskin said she had been in the same room as him in court, but claims she has “never even spoken to Joe Exotic.”

She then made a shocking revelation that her missing husband, Don Lewis, could very well be alive.

Despite her legal battle with Tiger King 2, she said: “I’ll tell what, 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 reached out to the Sheriff’s Detective.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter 

“Which means this had to have happened after 2002 because Homeland Security wasn’t even around until 2002, and they said that my husband Don Lewis is alive and well in Costa Rica.

“And yet all of this hate has been made about me having something to do with his appearance when Homeland Security has known where he is since at least back then,” Baskin added.

Presenter Phillip Schofield candidly addressed rumours that his children from his previous marriage think Baskin “killed him, minced him up and fed him to the tigers.”

Baskin quickly responded: “I think maybe they should check with Homeland Security, who seems to know where he is.”

When asked whether she believed him to be alive, she said: “I don’t know how it is that Homeland Security says he’s alive and well in Costa Rica, but I’m glad to hear it.”

Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight will offer a “true and authentic and raw” series about bringing down animal exploiters – “that’s why Joe Exotic is in jail,” she threw in. The show streams exclusively on Discovery+.

Indy100 has reached out to Netflix for comment.