Tiger King: 12 Unanswered Questions Season 2 Must Answer
2. What Happened To Joe Exotic's First Two Husbands?
One aspect of the Documentary that was bizarrely left out of the series was that Joe Exotic had actually been married twice before the 'big wedding' displayed in the show. While the first episode of the series emphasis on his brother's death in a car accident having a major impact on Joe, it was a particularly strange choice to leave out the details in regards Joe's first two husbands.
As reported by a Robert Moor article in New York Magazine from September 2019, Joe was first married to a man named Brian Rhyne. The article reports that Joe met Rhyne while working as a security guard at a gay cowboy bar during the late 1980's. The two resembled each other with matching mullets, and built the initial GW Park together. Rhyne died in 2001 of HIV complications, which appears to coincide with Joe's changed attitudes in regards the treatment of his animals. The story seems to be quite a pivotal part of Joe's journey so it was strange it was not addressed, and would surely be a major focus of future seasons.
Another focus for a new season could be on Joe's second husband, J.C. Hartpence, whose adventures could fill up a series of its own. The Moor article reports that Hartpence once held a gun to Joe's head in a drunken rage, before being convicted of murder after breaking up with Joe. Just when you thought the story couldn't get any crazier...