You may know Joey Fatone as an actor and former boy bander, but his biggest role doesn't get much in the way of headlines: He's also a proud dad and autism advocate.
Entertainment Tonight sat down with the •NSYNC performer to discuss raising a child with autism. Fatone and wife Kelly are parents to two daughters, 16-year-old Briahna and 7-year-old Kloey, the latter of whom has been described as having high-functioning autism.
“It has tested us a lot," Fatone, who will soon compete on Battle of the Network Stars, told ET of Kloey's diagnosis. "She’s on the spectrum of autism and there are all different types, so everyone handles their child differently, but we handle it as we go, like most parents.
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"The things that I was able to simply explain or express to Briahna when she was young, I have to kind of take a different approach with Kloey, for her to understand.”
Kloey joined her father for this week's episode of the USA celebrity game show Big Star Little Star, where they raised $5,000 for the charity Autism Speaks.
"It was very exciting and I was happy she had a great time and wasn’t nervous,” Fatone, who recently celebrated Father's Day with a Daddy-daughter selfie, said of the experience. “That kid has no fear.”
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