Tiger King star Joe Exotic is said to be unaware of how the show handled the tragic death of his husband Travis Maldonado.

Maldonado, who also worked at Exotic's zoo, was just 23 years old when he accidentally shot himself in the head while fooling around with colleagues.

Footage of the incident itself wasn't shown in the Netflix series, although Exotic's campaign manager Joshua Dial was seen reacting to Maldonado's death as he watched the events unfold on CCTV.

Exotic is currently in prison and has been unable to watch the series that has made him a household name - and current husband Dillon Passage has admitted to keeping him in the dark about the Maldonado scenes.

"I feel like some things shouldn't have been shown in the docuseries, like Travis's accident in the office," Passage told ET.

"I feel like that was very personal to Joe and that it was used for an emotional purpose and to get people more drawn in to the show.

"I don't think that's fair to Travis. He probably would not have wanted that put all over the world... And I didn't tell [Joe] that it was in there. I feel like he's definitely gonna be upset about it, so it's best that he doesn't know."

Netflix have confirmed that a new episode, branded an "after show", will drop on the streaming service this Sunday.