During a live Q&A, Tiger King star Rick Kirkham dished out some extra details about his time working with Joe Exotic. A central figure in the Netflix series, Kirkham has made it clear he is not a fan of the eccentric man at the center of the documentary. Speaking about his experiences with Joe, Rick dished out some disturbing stories and spoke about Exotic's secret ex-wife and children.
In the livestreamed Q&A session which took place on Saturday, Kirkham revealed that Exotic had been "married to a woman years before." He added, "He had children and his son came to work at the zoo the summer that I was there, the very first summer." He went on to explain that Joe had fathered Brandon Chappell, who appears in the docuseries, but he didn't indicate whether Chappell's mother, Kim, was who he married.
"His son Brandon is in the documentary and I’m surprised that the documentary didn’t bring that up," Kirkham continued. "Joe treated his son worse than he treated the other employees. 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."
Kirkham has been forthcoming about his experiences working with Joe Exotic, divulging even more information since the series hit Netflix. In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, he called Joe Exotic "one of the most evil people I've met in my entire life." While a lot of fans of the show have rallied behind the currently incarcerated star of the series, Kirkham has said he is dumbfounded that anyone could be sympathetic towards him. "That blows my mind," he remarked.
"I witnessed him shoot and kill two tigers for no reason whatsoever, just because he was pissed off at them," Kirkham added. "We had wild chickens that ran around everywhere in the zoo, and he’d just be pissed and kick one of these chickens into the cage so that these tigers could just rip it to shreds. That was just the kind of guy he was. He enjoyed seeing people and animals hurt. He enjoyed it. He got off on it."
Tiger King has dominated the cultural landscape ever since it debuted, and Spotify has seen an uptick in streams for Joe Exotic's music. In the past two weeks, there's been an increased popularity of Exotic's music across the majority of the music service's markets, with Denmark and the U.K. taking the most interest.
