Remember Carole Baskin's 'dead' husband? Turns out he's alive

Remember in the early COVID-19 lockdown days when the world was hooked on Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin and the rest of the untamed Tiger King crew?

One example of the wild plot progression of the hit Netflix series was the fact that Baskin’s ex-husband, Don Lewis, was declared formerly dead in 2002, after going missing in 1997. The Tiger King himself and Carole’s arch nemesis Joe had always outspokenly accused Baskin of murdering Lewis, allegedly by feeding him to her own tigers at her site Big Cat Rescue.

Well, turns out Lewis has been found alive in Costa Rica, but the discovery is just now going viral — over a year later.

During a November 2021 interview with ITV’s This Morning talk show, Baskin, 61, revealed that her ex is indeed alive and well.

At the time, Baskin reportedly told ITV: “One of the really exciting things that came out of Tiger King 2 is that they produced a letter from Homeland Security and it says that a special agent in charge with the FBI at Homeland Security reached out to the sheriff’s detective George [Jorge] Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002, because Homeland Security wasn’t even around until 2002.” 

"I didn’t think he was capable of supporting himself," Baskin continued. "He took about a million dollars down to Costa Rica, I had agreed to let him do that so he could prove to himself that he could make a living." As for what happened to the money in question, Baskin said she attempted to recover it, only to find there was just $80,000 left "because the investments he had made were so bad."

Where is Carole Baskin's ex-husband Don Lewis now?

Lewis has not made a public statement about the fact he isn't six feet under, nor does he appear to have returned to the United States. While Baskin maintains that the American government is aware Lewis is alive and living in Costa Rica, he's reportedly still legally documented as deceased.