Carole Baskin wants people to meet ‘real her’ not ‘Tiger King husband killer’

Carole Baskin is hoping the world will get to know the real her, rather than the woman from Tiger King accused of killing her husband, when she takes part in Dancing With The Stars.

The 59-year-old, who runs sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, is taking part in the US version of Strictly Come Dancing this year.

Carole became a very famous face during lockdown as people binged Netflix docu-series Tiger King.

She was the main nemesis of Joe Exotic, who is currently serving 22 years in prison for attempting to facilitate Carole’s murder as well as a string of animal cruelty charges, all things he denies.

Throughout the series, he was seen accusing Carole of killing her husband Don Lewis and feeding him to her tigers.

Carole denies she had anything to do with Don’s disappearance, but that hasn’t stopped the allegations being turned into memes and songs and being parodied by many on social media.

Now, she’s hoping to show the world who she really is, rather than who Joe said she is.

Carole said on Good Morning America: “Tiger King really glamorized animal abusers and villainized me for trying to stop animal abuse, and so I felt really betrayed by that.

“But what amazed me was how many people believed that false portrayal of me without doing anything to find out who I really am. It’s been a nightmare since Tiger King aired.”

Carole is hoping her time on the hit US show will help promote animal welfare and conservation.

She said: “The longer my partner and I can stay in the running and in the competition it will keep the cats forefront in the viewer’s eye and to me that was where Tiger King missed the ball – it really should have been focused on the animals.

“I am competitive, but I am competitive with myself. I want to do the very best that I can possibly do.”

Carole is going up against rapper Nelly, Desperate Housewives hunk Jesse Metcalfe, Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean, Disney Channel star Skai Jackson, and other big names on the show.

On signing up for the show, Carole said: “I would rather work with apex predators, like lions and tigers, they are a whole lot less scary than getting out there on the dancefloor.”