‘Doc’ Antle Claims John Finlay Was Forced to Take His Teeth out for ‘Tiger King’

The documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness had many people talk about their relationship with Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage also known as “Joe Exotic.” One of them was John Finlay, who used to be married to him.

Finlay was seen in the series being shirtless and missing teeth. There were a few reasons given for his appearance including Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle claiming Finlay was forced to film without teeth.

John Finlay used to be married to Joe Exotic of ‘Tiger King’

Maldonado-Passage has had four husbands. Finlay was one of them and started out working for the zoo owner on his roadshow and zoo. Their relationship then became romantic and eventually they got married in a three-way ceremony with Travis Maldonado.

Maldonado died in 2017 from accidentally shooting him with a gun. Finlay later left Maldonado-Passage for a secretary at the zoo named Stormey Sanders. He is now married to her.

Finlay was shirtless because he was proud of his tattoos

Finlay was shirtless throughout the documentary as he told his story. There was a reason for that according to co-director Rebecca Chaiklin.

“I think he was very proud of his tattoos,” she told Los Angeles Times. “That’s a big thing in that particular culture.” Finlay has over 50 tattoos, which cover most of his upper torso. His tattoos include a tiger on his right forearm, script that reads ‘For My Husband Joe’ on his upper arm, and several intricate tribal tattoos across his chest and stomach.”

Finlay also showed a tattoo on his chest that had Joe’s name along with a tiger. There was a scene of Finlay getting his “PRIVATELY OWNED BY JOE EXOTIC” tattoo on his lower stomach covered up with a new tattoo.

Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle claimed Finlay was forced to film without teeth

Carole Baskin isn’t the only one who isn’t happy about how she was portrayed in the series. Antle accused the filmmakers of wanting to show people in a certain light.

“John [Finlay] was forced to take his teeth out for the series,” Antle told Us Weekly. “He had bridgework done, I guess he did a lot of meth as a kid. But the show wanted him portrayed a certain way, so the teeth had to come out. He had a full set of teeth before taping.”

Finlay did post a picture with his wife on Facebook. He captioned it with “Yes I have my teeth fixed. The producers of the Netflix series had video and pictures of this, but chose not to show it.”

Antle went on to say he wasn’t happy about the documentary either. “It took off and just became this huge hit at the perfect time because people are stuck on their Covid couches. It gave bored people something to really sink their teeth into,” he said. “I wish that they would have portrayed it in more of a documentary fashion. My facility was only shown briefly if you notice, and that was for a reason. My facility is first class, much better than Joe or Carole [Baskin’s] backyard overgrown very small so-called sanctuary. Mine is the nicest in the world.”