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Where Is Girls Gone Wild Creator Joe Francis Now? His Lifestyle "in Exile"
Controversial film producer Joe Francis, now the subject of Peacock's Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, left the United States amid mounting legal troubles.
Once at the top of a late-night videotape empire that became a cultural phenomenon in the late ’90s and early aughts, the controversial figure behind the Girls Gone Wild franchise is now a man in exile.
Joe Francis, featured in the Peacock exclusive Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story streaming now, raked in millions for his less-than-wholesome videos featuring young (often intoxicated) spring breakers baring their chests for cameras. But “what was truly happening under the surface was much darker, including allegations of sexual coercion and exploitation,” according to the series’ official description.
Girls Gone Wild garnered a cult following, polarizing the masses while turning Francis into a figure of cause célèbre to mingle with Hollywood’s most elite.
Legal troubles seemed to follow Francis wherever he went, however, and in 2015, he fled the country. While state-side law enforcers continue to seek justice, he sat for an interview with reporter Scaachi Koul, giving his first “in-depth, in-person, on-the-record interview” in nearly a decade, excerpts of which are featured in the new series available now to watch on Peacock.
Keep reading to learn more about Joe Francis, his alleged crimes, and where he is today.
Who is Joe Francis?
The 51-year-old entrepreneur was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised with his three sisters in Laguna Beach, California, according to his 2012 official website. Citing his fascination “with the complexities and challenges of business,” he enrolled in the entrepreneurial program at the University of Southern California, graduating in 1995.
He soon found work as an production assistant at Real TV, a syndicated reality TV program during the mid-’90s featuring home-video footage one couldn’t find in mainstream media, a few years before the World Wide Web became a household feature. He noted content “too disturbing to broadcast” grew popular among his colleagues. Through this, he conceptualized Banned From Television, a VHS tape advertised on late-night cable.
“By chance,” Francis came upon the “playful, joyous nudity” of spring break revelers in Lake Havasu being arrested for their antics, perceiving its marketable value, according to his website. Taking footage from Banned From Television, he produced a compilation that would eventually become Girls Gone Wild, which officially launched in 1997, according to People.
“Flashing for the camera is a kind of release for them,” Francis had stated. “It’s an expression of freedom, a statement of independence and, frankly, a matter of pride.”
Girls Gone Wild’s direct-response marketing extended to pay-per-view TV, video-on-demand, and other platforms. Meanwhile, Francis acquired multiple million-dollar tour buses to “serve as rolling billboards” which, at the peak of its success, took the brand to more than 700 live events per year and made room for interactions with tens of thousands of college-age consumers, according to his website.
Francis began dating Abbey Wilson, with whom he fathered a pair of twin girls in 2014, according to PEOPLE.
Girls Gone Wild’s “shocking grip” on the millennium felt inescapable to those who lived it, according to the Peacock series’ description.
What legal troubles did Joe Francis face?
As seen in Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story’s official trailer, Francis’s success came with plenty of scandal.
His 2003 Girls Gone Wild event in Panama City Beach, Florida, led to a major tit-for-tat between Francis and Florida politicians. Lawmen cracked down on the rowdy crowds it brought in, and Francis even sued that such restrictions impeded filming and, therefore, trampled on his first-amendment rights to free speech, according to The New York Times.
One father threw an accusation his minor daughter was filmed in a shower scene, reported the NYT, and when authorities confiscated Francis’s private jet, they stated they found cocaine on board (the latter claim was later considered unfounded). Ultimately, Francis was charged with 70-plus counts of racketeering, drug trafficking, prostitution, and promoting the sexual performance of children. All but six of those counts were later dismissed.
Five women and two 17-year-old girls from the Panama City Beach event also sued Francis in civil court, and several contempt charges followed in light of Francis’s perceived noncooperation, per The New York Times. While behind bars, he was slapped with contraband-related charges for allegedly smuggling in sleeping pills, anxiety meds, and $700 in cash.
The civil case was settled.
Per the criminal child abuse and prostitution charges, in 2008, Francis entered a “no contest” plea that allowed him to walk free after nearly a year behind bars, according to The Los Angeles Times. He also pleaded guilty to the contraband charges, as part of the deal.
“I have never committed any crime. I pleaded guilty just to get out of jail,” Francis maintained after the hearing. “A few corrupt individuals were able to keep an innocent man in jail for 11 months.”
Meanwhile, Francis still faced federal tax evasion charges from 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A Reno-based grand jury indicted him for deducting “more than $20 million in false business expenses on the companies’ 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns.”
For the federal charges, which alleged Francis hid $15 million in off-shore accounts, he faced up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty, laying the blame at the feet of a former accountant, according to Forbes.
On September 10, 2012, Francis was ordered to pay $20 million punitive damages to billionaire Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn after it went before a Los Angeles jury, according to ABC News. The decision came about half a year after a Nevada judge hit Francis with a $7.5 million payment after Wynn accused him of defamation.
A significant portion of the suit stemmed from an interview Francis gave on Good Morning America when he claimed the casino mogul purportedly emailed threats to kill Francis with a shovel and bury him in the desert — all over an alleged gambling debt.
In 2013, Francis was convicted of assault causing great bodily injury and false imprisonment charges and sentenced to 270 days in jail plus three years of probation, stemming from a 2011 incident involving three women. According to The Los Angeles Times, Francis met the women at Hollywood’s Supper Club and took them to his limo.
Inside the vehicle, Francis and his driver allegedly produced phony cop badges before taking them to Francis’ home. There, Francis allegedly attacked one of the women by grabbing her throat and banging her head on the floor. The victims said he "threatened the women if they called police," the L.A. outlet reported.
By 2014, Francis filed for bankruptcy (viewed as a means to block Wynn from his legal win), according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, federal agents issued an arrest warrant when he allegedly failed to produce two luxury cars, thus violating the terms of his bankruptcy agreement.
By 2015, Francis was living in Mexico, where he could not be extradited for civil cases.
Where is Joe Francis now?
As seen in Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, Francis “now lives in exile on a sprawling estate in Mexico amidst the rubble of his once mighty empire,” according to the show’s description. His Casa Aramara, which boasts its own website, is an “ultra-luxury 5-star private estate” along the white sandy shores of Punta Mita.
The jaw-dropping estate has been a hot destination for many celebrities, including the Kardashians, Jennifer Aniston, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and many more, according to Francis’s official website. However, as reported by PEOPLE, Francis lost his right to profit from the resort until he could pay back the millions he funneled to maintain Casa Aramara.
In 2021, Francis spent over $1 million in repairs after 20 percent of the home was destroyed by fire from an electrical source, as reported by TMZ. That same year, Francis took to Instagram and accused his ex, Abbey Wilson, of abusing their twin daughters — claims that were never substantiated.
Wilson also accused Francis of failing to pay child support, according to TMZ.
Learn more about Joe Francis’s “astonishing and wide-ranging account” in the three-part series Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, now available to stream on Peacock.
