Carole Baskin Reportedly Hit With Defamation Lawsuit Over References to Don Lewis on 'DWTS'

The family of Carole Baskin's missing husband has filed another lawsuit against the 'Tiger King' star, TMZ reports.

Carole Baskin
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Image via Getty/Kelsey McNeal

Carole Baskin

The family of Carole Baskin's missing husband has filed another lawsuit against the Tiger King star.

According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Don Lewis' daughters and former assistant Anne McQueen are suing Baskin over jokes about Lewis' mysterious 1997 disappearance. The plaintiffs point to Baskin's appearance on Dancing With the Stars, where she failed to condemn a joke that seemingly made light of murder allegations.

The suit specifically highlights an instance when a DWTS judge told Baskin she "didn't quite kill the paso double, it was kind of sedated." McQueen argued the use of "kill" and "sedated" was an insensitive quip that Baskin should have denounced. The plaintiffs also say Baskin has joked about her suspected involvement in Lewis' disappearance; they specifically mentioned Baskin's recent interview on Good Morning America, when she told the hosts she would "really kill it next week" on DWTS.

Lewis' disappearance was a major storyline in Netflix's Tiger King docuseries. Joe Exotic repeatedly accused Baskin of killing her husband, though local law enforcement say she is not a suspect. Lewis' family has also raised suspicion that Baskin was somehow involved in her former husband's disappearance. In fact, the family appeared an ad that called on viewers to report any useful information about the case.

Oh my goodness. Don Lewis’ family just ran an ad on ABC before Carole Baskin’s Dancing with the Stars segment: “Don Lewis mysteriously disappeared in 1997...Do you know who did this or if Carole Baskin was involved?” pic.twitter.com/K6Ph51RAeU

— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) September 15, 2020

Lewis family attorney John M. Phillips claims his team has received dozens of tips since the commercial aired.

During Tuesday night's episode of Dancing with the Stars, Baskin talked about the impact Tiger King has had on her life. "All of the negative media attention that came out of Tiger King was extremely difficult because of the fact that my family was struggling so much with it, to the point where my daughter doesn't read hardly any of the news anymore," Baskin said, per Yahoo. "I've seen what the media can do to you. And I hate that I try even harder to be strong in their presence. I keep it inside and wait until everybody's gone before I can break down."

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