Carole Baskin is reportedly being sued by Don Lewis’ family and former assistant for ‘defamation’, after being seen involved in jokes at his expense on Dancing With The Stars.
The Tiger King star’s husband Don went missing in 1997, six years after they married in 1991, and remains to be found. He was legally declared dead five years later in 2002.
In the Netflix series, Carole is accused of being involved in her husband’s disappearance, with her rival Joe Exotic claiming he thinks she ‘fed him to the tigers’ – claims Carole has repeatedly denied.
Such claims saw the emergence of TikTok videos taking aim at Carole and joking over Don’s disappearance by reimagining the words to Megan Thee Stallion’s hit Savage.
Judges bought up the viral videos during Carole’s appearance on Dancing With The Stars, with Don’s family now arguing that she should have spoken out against the panel’s jokes.
In the clips, the lyrics say: ‘Carole Baskin killed her husband, whacked him. Can’t convince me that it didn’t happen. Fed him to tigers, they snackin’. What’s happening?’
According to TMZ, Don’s daughters Gale, Donna and Lynda and his former assistant Anne McQueen are now filing a lawsuit for defamation against Carole – also taking aim at Carole not disputing Bruno Tonioli when he described her paso doble as ‘sedated’ and joked she didn’t quite ‘kill’ it.
In new legal docs, obtained by the publication, McQueen also references an interview Carole gave on Good Morning America, where she promised to ‘kill it’ for her second DWTS performance.
Carole previously settled a libel and slander suit from Anne for $50,000 (£39,000) in 1998. However, Don’s family attorney John Phillips claims the Big Cats Rescue owner is now repeating previous false statements on social media and Dancing With The Stars.
It comes after Don’s family bought advertising space to air a commercial appealing for information of his whereabouts or any information on Carole’s alleged involvement in Don going missing.
The advert only appeared on screens in Florida, but aired during Carole’s DWTS debut.
Responding to the commercial, Carole told Metro.co.uk: ‘Someone (a reporter I won’t name) made sure that I knew about it 10 minutes before going out on the dance floor tonight.
‘And you can see that it did not keep me from bringing the best performance of my two weeks of learning.’
She claimed the ad was a ‘huge publicity stunt’ by Don’s interview, adding to Entertainment Tonight: ‘I have not seen the ad. I am not at all surprised.
‘It’s just been a huge publicity stunt on their part, so what more could they possibly do than that?’
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Carole’s rep.
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