Yet another twist in the Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness tale has been revealed and this one involves pop princess Britney Spears .
Britney’s 2001 MTV Video Music Awards performance is iconic, as it was at that event where she famously sang “Slave 4 u” on stage with exotic animals. She performed the hit with an albino Burmese python around her shoulders at one point, but that wasn’t the only wild animal she shared the stage with.
According to a report from Us Weekly , the tiger handler who appears in a cage with a tiger and Britney was none other than Doc Antle. Photos on the site show the now 60-year-old behind Britney tending to the tiger as she belted out her hit at the 2001 awards show. Throughout the video, he can be seen in the cage with the tiger, who is on a chain, while the pop princess danced around in a jungle green top that bared her toned abs and a pair of colorful shorts.
According to the report, in 2016, Antle revealed that the tiger featured on stage with Britney during the performance had passed away.
Some fans think Britney has a connection to another Tiger King cast member as well.
A photo shared to Twitter shows Britney in the audience at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards sitting next to a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Carole Baskin. Immediately, fans took to the comments to express their opinions. Some were skeptical as to whether or not the woman wearing a leopard print outfit is actually the woman who runs Big Cat Rescue. Many fans speculated that the woman was not Carole, but rather someone who simply looked like her. Others were convinced it was the Tiger King star and wondered why she was sitting next to the singer at the awards show.
Britney has yet to speak about the photo, so the identity of the woman sitting next to her is still uncertain.
Regardless of who was in the photo, it is obvious Britney fans appreciated the shot. The tweet has over 8,500 likes, nearly 1,500 retweets, and over 100 comments.
Tiger King is a seven part documentary currently streaming on Netflix. The show has become an instant hit with quarantined individuals who are binge watching the bizarre show and making household names of those featured in the series, including the self-proclaimed “Tiger King” himself, Joe Exotic. Throughout the series, Joe is shown belting out big cat-themed country songs, but it turns out, he isn’t the one actually singing .
