Fat Joe is discussing how he raised his son Joey, who has autism and Down syndrome.
During his guest appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast on Wednesday, October 16, the 54-year-old rapper revealed that his ex-partner abandoned him and his 33-year-old son Joey, following their child’s diagnosis of Down syndrome at birth.
“So, the doctor tells us, ‘I got bad news to tell you… he has Down syndrome, and it’s going to be a big challenge,'” Fat Joe told Sharpe that “his mother said, ‘Yo, I can’t do this; I’m going to have to give him up for adoption.'”
“My mother was like, ‘You crazy b——‘ And so, we raised him,” he recounted, referring to his mother and father, who assisted in Joey’s upbringing.
“I never saw his mother again; that’s what I’m telling you.” She never visited him again,” he alleged, adding, “She abandoned the child.”
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Fat Joe explained that Joey’s mother could always see her kid if she wanted to. “It wasn’t like I kept the door closed where she couldn’t see her son,” he told me. “It was always available for her to see her son.”
Raising Joey was never an issue for the artist, who stated, “[A] father’s got to be a father.”
“I don’t know how to be a fake father,” he explained. My kids need me to do everything I can. I’m not sure how to give up on my kids. I don’t know how to stop loving my children.
In addition to Joey, the rapper is a father to daughter Azariah, 17, whom he shares with wife Lorena Cartagena, and son Ryan, 27, from a prior relationship.
Later in life, Joey received an autism diagnosis, but despite his “challenges,” his proud father declared, “This boy is joyful.” I swear to God, he is always joyful. He is never sad. He’s like, “If you’re stuck somewhere, he’s stuck in happiness.”
Fat Joe reveals that Joey understands his role in his blended family of five, referring to him as the “Don.”
“He does anything he wants. He achieves exactly what he desires. “He sits at the end of the table; he knows, ‘Oh, those are my little brothers and sisters.'”
“We treat him the way we do because we never gave up on him,” said Fat Joe.