Joe Exotic is explaining why he finally filed for divorce from husband Dillon Passage ... he wants to get hitched to a new guy he met behind bars!!!
The Netflix star's lawyer, Autumn Blackledge, tells TMZ ... Joe's new love interest is a man named John Graham, and the prison romance is the reason Exotic recently filed divorce docs from jail.
Joe sums it up this way ... "God works in amazing ways." Yes, He does.
As we first told you ... Joe and Dillon were estranged for more than a year before Exotic filed for divorce, and Dillon's already got a new man in his life too.
Joe's attorney tells us he met John in February 2021 when they were both locked up at FMC Fort Worth in Texas ... and even though John's since been released from custody, it seems he's had a lasting impact on Joe.
According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, John was in prison for burglary and possession of a firearm. He was sentenced in 2012 to more than 12 years in prison, although prison records show he was released March 15 of this year.
Joe married Dillon on Dec. 11, 2017 ... only 2 months after Exotic's previous husband, Travis Maldonado, died after accidentally shooting himself.
Now, Joe's got his eye on his third marriage.