We’ve all been looking for distractions during the coronavirus pandemic and resulting quarantines, which is part of the reason why the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness has skyrocketed in popularity to become the most-watched show on television right now.

The main character of the show, Joseph Maldonado-Passage a.k.a. Joe Exotic, is entertaining enough to fill all seven episodes and then some. But fans are equally intrigued by some of the secondary characters, including Mahamayavi Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, one of Maldonado-Passage’s acquaintances and former business associates.

Tiger King makes it appear as though Doc Antle is running some sort of cult. But he went on record saying it’s all a fiction, including the testimony of one of his former employees and alleged ex-girlfriend, Barbara Fisher.

Antle owns a 50-acre wildlife preserve in South Myrtle Beach called The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (or T.I.G.E.R.S.), plus runs the Myrtle Beach Safari Tour where people can interact with wild animals. Based on the footage from the docuseries, Antle has one of the more upscale and well-tended operations, at least on the surface.

It’s impossible not to notice the employees working for Antle. All are scantily clad, attractive females who have their own homes on the sprawling property. The T.I.G.E.R.S. owner refers to one of the workers as his “long-time girlfriend/partner” in the series, but later insisted he’s not running some sort of harem.

When it comes to relationships, Antle presents himself as solidly single. “I am absolutely not married nor have I been since my wife died over 20 years ago now,” he explained in an interview with Oxygen. “I’m not married and I certainly don’t have wives. I certainly am a single guy and I live in a house by myself.”

I just had my 60th birthday. I wanted to come hang out with one of my favorite big cats, Apollo here is only five years old and already weighs over 900 pounds and stands 11.5 feet tall on his hind legs. When I asked my partner Moksha what her favorite thing she learned about ligers over the last 20 years of hanging out she said “he’s bilingual as he speaks both lion and tiger” She doesn’t look 40 does she. The world largest cat. Over 900 lbs and 11.5 ft tall.

A post shared by Dr. Bhagavan Antle (@docantle) on Mar 25, 2020 at 5:22am PDT

A huge reason Antle got such a negative reputation following the release of Tiger King was because of damaging testimony from former employee Barbara Fisher. Fisher claimed that Antle recruited her to work on the preserve when she was a teenager and that she endured horrible treatment there, including working long days without breaks and being encouraged to enter a sexual relationship with Antle.

In Tiger King, Fisher said to make be successful at Antle’s preserve, the women would have sex with him. She also asserted that he preferred being the first sexual partner to create a “bond” and “could get them to do anything.”

Antle strongly refutes the claims. He told Oxygen that Fisher’s testimony is untrue, saying: “[These are] the ramblings of a crazy child who has a lot of, in my opinion, issues and somehow those have boiled up.” Antle also said Fisher worked for him as a babysitter, not an animal handler, and that “maybe she thinks she was passed over or something.”

Save The Tiger Save The World. @undertaker @mimicalacool #savethetigersavetheworld The tiger stands as the last sentinel of the forest. If we lose the tiger, we will lose a piece of ourselves but if we could save the tiger we could save the world. For the tiger to survive it must have clean clear skies, pristine lakes and rivers plentiful prey animals, lush forests, wide open spaces and people who care. If we save the tiger we can save the world.

A post shared by Dr. Bhagavan Antle (@docantle) on Mar 16, 2020 at 7:56am PDT

But even though Antle denied the claim, Fisher didn’t go away quietly. She told Distractify, “Calling people who criticize or (even disagree with him) ‘crazy’ is a boilerplate response from Bhagavan. When any of my friends asked what I thought his response might be before the release of the documentary, I said ‘He will call me crazy and try to minimize my involvement.’ That is exactly what he has done.”

But Antle is insistent he’s just a regular guy running a nature preserve and animal sanctuary. “I’m what they call ‘OFG’ these days: old, fat, and grey. I embrace that character and I am not chasing down women. Twenty years ago I was more of a dashing fellow but even then I was ultra-conservative,” he said. “The cultiest thing about us is that I totally believe that yoga has helped me stay limber and strong and made my life a better thing,”

It’s hard to separate fact from fiction in the docuseries, which is a huge part of what makes the whole thing so fascinating. There’s a good chance we haven’t seen the last of this saga yet.