“My husband and I look forward to seeing Kate McKinnon and Kyle McLaughlin’s portrayal of us, even though we expect it will be a parody based on the trailer,” Baskin told Metro in January 2022 of the series. “Both are talented actors and I expect Joe vs Carole will be a lot more entertaining than the situation was in real life.” The cat’s also out of the bag when it comes to Baskin’s take on Tiger King; in a blog post two years ago, she slammed that series for having “the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible.” Not surprisingly, Tiger King left some viewers speculating about the 1997 disappearance of Baskin’s second husband, millionaire Don Lewis. While she’s repeatedly denied any involvement with his disappearance, there are many who think she may have killed him or had him killed. “My fear is that in the next five years, while people are morbidly obsessed the plight of my former husband, Don Lewis, we will have reached the point of no return for the planet by failing to safeguard the world’s most iconic species,” Baskin added to Metro, after stating that shows like Netflix’s Tiger King don’t “really get at the main issues of big cat and cub abuse and the imminent extinction of big cats due to cub petting.” As the animal activist’s story play out on Peacock, you might be wondering more about her real-life marriages and if there’s any new evidence surrounding Lewis’ disappearance. So keep reading for what we know Carole Baskin’s husbands.

How many husbands has Carole Baskin had?

Carole Baskin has been married three times: to Michael Murdock, Don Lewis and Howard Baskin, in that order.

Who was Carole Baskin’s first husband, Michael Murdock?

In the third episode of Tiger King Season 1, Baskin says she married Murdock (played by Rowan Chapman in Joe vs Carole), when she was 17. She called him “extremely abusive,” and alleges that she met Lewis when she left the house one night after an argument with Murdock—although it would still be four years before she tied the knot with Lewis. The scene is reportedly depicted in the new series, with McKinnon’s Carole getting in the car with Lewis (played by David Wenham) after throwing a potato at Murdock and leaving the house barefoot. Murdock and Baskin share a daughter, Jamie Veronica Murdock (played by Marlo Kelly in Joe vs Carole).

Who was Carole Baskin’s husband Don Lewis?

Lewis was a multi-millionaire who disappeared in 1997 at the age of 60. The cold case was reopened following Tiger King Season 1, which sparked speculation about the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Following the release of the Tiger King’s second season, Cpl. Moises Garcia of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa gave a press conferenceto provide updates about the case. He said Baskin had refused three requests to be interviewed by police, and that Kenny Farr, a former handyman at her big cat sanctuary, also “didn’t interview with us.”  According to ABC News, Baskin said in an email to the Associated Press at the time that she’d referred Garcia to her attorney. “There is nothing that I know that is not either in the Sheriff’s files or in the diary I have published at SaveTheCats.org,” Baskin said. “And no way I am going to have a clearer memory, or anything to add, 24 years later.” Garcia remained confident the case would end up solved, saying, “If you ask a homicide detective if he can solve a case, and he says no, you should take away his badge.”

Is Carole Baskin’s husband Don Lewis alive? 

Um, technically, no? Lewis was declared legally dead in 2002, five years after his disappearance—yet still to this day, no evidence has surfaced that would definitively prove he’s dead or was murdered. After the success of Tiger King, new leads and tips came in to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, yet none were deemed credible.

Did Carole Baskin kill her husband Don Lewis?

While Tiger King strongly hints that Baskin somehow engineered Lewis’ disappearance/murder, not everyone who’s investigated the case is certain she’s behind his death. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister has suggested that someone who worked at Lewis’ wildlife sanctuary might be behind his disappearance; Chronister has also said he has never found “any type of evidence, not one piece, that suggests that [Lewis] was killed.”

Who is Carole Baskin’s third husband, Howard Baskin?

According to a post on the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary website, Howard and Carole Baskin met in 2002 at a party for a local spay and neuter program. “Howie won Carole’s adoration immediately because he had actually visited WildLife on Easy Street and knew who we were when it seemed that no one in the area had ever heard of us,” the post reads. The two animal rights activists got married on the beach on Nov. 1, 2004, and currently run the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary together in Tampa, Fla. Following Tiger King, Carole has purr-sued opportunities like competing on Dancing With the Starsin 2020 and launching her own cryptocurrency, called—what else?—$CAT, in May 2021. In September 2020, Baskin told The Sunhe found it “difficult” to be away from his wife during her time competing on Dancing With the Stars that year. “We have not been separated for more than two days at a time ever in the last 17 years, so this is very, very weird and rather difficult for us personally to say the least,” he said. “I was single and lived alone until aged 52 when we met, and I am still in the usual surroundings, so I think it is probably easier for me to be alone than her.”

Did Carole Baskin sue Netflix? 

In November 2021, Netflix followed the roaring initial success of Tiger King with a second installment, dubbed Tiger King 2. Prior to the premiere, the Baskins sued the streaming platform and others over what they reportedly called “unauthorized” use of previously filmed footage of them. A judge denied a temporary restraining order to block Netflix and Royal Goode Productions from featuring the footage, and the Baskins dropped the case after Season 2 premiered on Netflix.

Does Carole Baskin have kids? 

Carole Baskin has one daughter, Jamie Veronica Murdock, from her first marriage. Now 40 years old, the real-life Jamie works with her mom at the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary. According to the organization’s website, she’s served as the president of the rescue, a member of the Board of Directors and chair of the volunteer committee for over a decade. She also has an Etsy store, called Dancing Butterfly Arts.“I enjoy exploring my creativity and manifesting it into fun and quirky works of art including original acrylic paintings, Paw-casso paw print art, woodcrafts, and up-cycled mixed media projects,” she wrote in an announcement on the site. Next, Everything We Know About The Dropout, Hulu’s Dramatization of the Theranos Scandal 

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