Joe Francis

Joe Francis is best known as the founder and creator of the Girls Gone Wild empire.

Born in Georgia, Francis went on to graduate from the University of Southern California, where he majored in business and minored in film and television. He founded the Girls Gone Wild franchise in 1997, which earned $20 million in its first two years of business. After a multitude of legal issues involving the brand — and Francis himself — the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and was sold one year later.

Francis became a celebrity in his own right after Girls Gone Wild and has made tons of TV appearances over the years on shows including Couples Therapy, The Real Housewives of Miami and Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Francis was close with the Kardashian-Jenners and frequently hosted them and many other celebrities at his Mexican private estate, Casa Aramara, in Punta Mita.

The business owner started dating Abbey Wilson after she won Girls Gone Wild‘s Search for the Hottest Girl in America show in 2012. They welcomed two daughters in 2014 and moved to Mexico. The couple remained together until 2020 when Wilson relocated back to the U.S. following a tumultuous split from Francis. The pair subsequently ended up in a lengthy custody battle.