And we all missed it!

In quite literally the news flash of the decade (read: century), Carole Baskin’s former husband – who was declared legally dead in 2002 after going missing five years earlier – has been found alive and well. But, perhaps what’s even more shocking than Don Lewis‘ resurrection, is the fact that we all missed it.

It turns out that Baskin made the revelation about her husband during a TV appearance in 2021. And, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say: how the fuck did that go under the radar?

“How did I miss that Carole Baskin’s husband, that went missing and claimed to be fed to the tigers, was actually found alive in Costa Rica last year?” one person tweeted this week after discovering the shocking news. “What?! Surely this should’ve been front page news,” someone said in response, echoing our thoughts exactly.

“I’m sorry, WHAT!?” another confused Tiger King fan chimed in, as a fourth tweeted: “And we all thought she murdered him.”

What happened to Carole Baskin’s ex-husband Don Lewis?

To recap, Baskin – and, by default, Lewis – shot to fame back in 2020 when she starred on Netflix’s Tiger King, a docu-series that followed the strange adventures of big-cat keeper, Joseph Maldonado-Passage.

During the series, Maldonado-Passage repeatedly accused Baskin of being connected to her former husband’s death, after he mysteriously went missing in 1997, just six years after they were married. Baskin denied the allegations made against her, which notably included that she had fed Lewis’ body to her own hoard of big cats.

But speaking on ITV’s This Morning in 2021, Baskin revealed that Homeland Security had been in touch to confirm they’d uncovered Lewis’ whereabouts. “They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica. 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,” she said.

Baskin went on to share her surprise at the news, adding: “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.” 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?

Although Baskin asserts that the US government is aware Lewis is alive and living in Costa Rica, he’s still legally documented as being dead. He’s also made no public statement about the fact he isn’t quite six feet under, nor does he appear to have returned to America.

BRB, we need to go and lie down in a v dark, v quiet room…