In a resurfaced interview now going viral, Tiger King star Carole Baskin claims her former husband Don Lewis is alive in Costa Rica.
While no official source has confirmed that Lewis is alive, the interview from November 2021 has been widely shared, setting fans of the Netflix documentary into a frenzy online.
In the interview with ITV’s This Morning talk show, Baskin stated that her former husband, who was declared legally dead in 2002 after going missing five years earlier, is alive and well, according to US Homeland Security.
Baskin alleged during the interview that the department had been in touch with her ex-husband.
“They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica,” she said in the interview. “And yet all of this drama has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance, when Homeland Security has known where he is.”
It is still unclear whether Lewis is alive and has been found.
Lewis, who disappeared in 1997 at the age of 59, would be 84 if alive today. While Baskin insists that the US government has confirmed that he is alive and living in Costa Rica, he is still technically legally documented as dead. He has also not made any public statements about his status, whereabouts and does not appear to have returned to America.
“I don’t know how it is that Homeland Security says he’s alive and well in Costa Rica, but I’m glad to hear it,” Baskin added in the interview.
“I didn’t think he was capable of supporting himself. 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.”
Meanwhile, John M Phillips, Exotic’s attorney shared a screen shot alleging that Lewis has been found alive on his Facebook page on Wednesday along with a statement denying the new claim.
“During the filming of Tiger King, detailed efforts were made to find Don Lewis. They all failed. He is not alive,” Phillips wrote in his statement.
“The 2021 report by Carole Baskin was further unsupported allegation. It’s being republished as if it has veracity. It doesn’t. The story of the Tiger King is filled with lies, set up and misdirection. We still await a hearing for Joe’s freedom. The lies and set-up are spelt out in his motion for new trial. Read it. The work is done.”
