Carole Baskin Hoaxed Into First Video Interview Since Tiger King Release

Carole Baskin has given her first interview since the premiere of the Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. 

On Sunday, British YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners released a YouTube video claiming they hoaxed Baskin into doing the interview by pretending to work for Jimmy Fallon and his late-night show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. 

The pair lied to Baskin, telling her that their production company, Invisible Object, worked with Fallon to secure celebrity interviews for his show. Then, they told her she would be interviewed by Fallon via a Zoom conference call, but in reality, they used sound bites from old clips of the late-night show to conduct the interview.

Reps for Fallon did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

After rejecting their proposal twice, Baskin agreed to the interview on the grounds that she would not be asked about the Netflix docu-series, which she has repeatedly criticized for spreading misinformation.

When she finally joined their Zoom call for the interview, Baskin was told she would not be able to see Fallon but would only hear him asking her questions. Manners, who acted as a producer, coached her through the "interview," while Pieters stood by ready to play sound bites from The Tonight Show.

During the call, Baskin revealed she agreed to do the interview after some encouragement from her daughter, Jamie, and shared how she and her family — including husband Howard — have been spending their time during the coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted Big Cat Rescue.

"We are working every day with the cats at the sanctuary," Baskin said. "My daughter and I still come into the sanctuary every day because we have to take care of all of the big cats here."

"Unfortunately, due to the loss of tourism revenue, we've had to let go of about half of our staff," she added. "Thankfully, all of our animal care is by volunteers, so the animals are still getting their daily care, but it means all of us are having to work double-time to make sure all of that happens."

Baskin also said the sanctuary currently looks after "55 exotic cats," and that the non-profit was "thankfully" able to fully stock up food for the animals ahead of the quarantine.

However, she revealed the coronavirus may put an end to her sanctuary tours. "After COVID-19, I just don't know if we are ever going to be able to do tours again," she said.

While this may be Baskin's first video interview since the March 20 release of the series, she recently gave an interview with the Tampa Bay Times.

Talking to the Florida outlet in April, Baskin addressed the onslaught of backlash she has received since the premiere of the show — which touches on her feud with Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage and the disappearance of her ex-husband Don, which she has denied to know anything about.

“I’ve had to turn my phone off,” Baskin told the outlet, in reference to the numerous calls she says she receives around the clock from strangers. “I can’t tell the real ones from the fake ones because they’re always out of state numbers anyway.”

Baskin also said she is wary of leaving the house — including for her daily bike rides to Big Cat Rescue — because of the many death threats she has received.

She and her husband Howard also reiterated their dissatisfaction with how the series turned out. Baskin told the newspaper that when she first agreed to participate in the documentary, she was made to believe the project would focus on the exploitation of tiger breeding.

“I just feel so angry that people have totally missed the point,” she told the newspaper, with her husband adding, “There’s almost no way to describe the intensity of the feeling of betrayal.”

Tiger King producers have previously said Baskin "certainly wasn't coerced" to take part in the documentary.

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