Joe Exotic Allegedly Has a Son With a "Secret" Ex-Wife

You may think you got everything in the wild story that is the new Tiger King docuseries. But between the polygamy, murder plans, and exotic animals, you probably missed that the infamous Joe Exotic has a son – and he was actually in the docuseries.

Brandon Chappell is allegedly Joe's son from an ex-wife who is mostly erased from Joe's narrative. They don't have an estranged relationship — in fact, Brandon once even worked at Joe's zoo.

Brandon is the son of Kim, whose relationship with Joe was never really mentioned in the documentary. Joe is openly gay and talks in the documentary largely about his multiple marriages, but makes no mention that he was married to a woman while he was serving as a police officer in Texas.

“Very few people realize Joe was married to a woman years before,” producer Rick Kirkland said during a Q&A livestream, according to The Sun. It's never specified whether Kim is the ex-wife, or if there was another marriage to a woman outside of his relationship with Kim. 

During the livestream, the producer also said that Joe had "children," plural, but Brandon is the only one mentioned by name. It's unclear if Joe has more than one child.

It's said that Joe's relationship with Brandon was spotty, as Joe was in and out of Brandon's life frequently while he was young.

“His son came to work at the zoo the summer that I was there, the very first summer,” he revealed. “His son Brandon is in the documentary and I’m surprised that the documentary didn’t bring that up."

Allegedly, Joe was very proud of the fact that he had a son, and when Brandon came to work with him on his zoo, he made it a point to tell people who Brandon was.

But Brandon was blatantly not a favorite of Joe's, getting stuck with the worst jobs around the enclosure instead of giving him any special treatment.

“Joe treated his son worse than he treated the other employees," Rick said. "He expected more out of him, he expected him to take more leadership and do harder work. He had his son sweeping the park instead of giving him a decent job, feeding the animals or something like that. It was almost as though he regretted having a child, that he regretted having been married.”

This is what eventually led to Brandon leaving the zoo and his relationship with his father, as he felt he was getting unequal treatment.

If all of this isn't enough to wrap your head around, Brandon is now 38 with a wife and three children of his own, meaning Joe has grandchildren!

Joe's relationship with his grandchildren is unclear. Considering the treatment Brandon received while working at the zoo, it's unlikely they are close anymore.