{"id":320516,"date":"2024-10-21T06:40:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=320516"},"modified":"2024-10-24T16:22:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T21:22:15","slug":"rapper-fat-joe-son-autism-down-syndrome-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/rapper-fat-joe-son-autism-down-syndrome-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Fat Joe: Being a dad to son with autism and Down syndrome is my ‘biggest blessing’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joseph Cartagena, a rapper known by his stage name “Fat Joe,” has spoken about his life raising a child with dual diagnoses of autism and Down syndrome, after his son’s mother abandoned them.<\/p>\n

Fat Joe has been married to his wife, Lorena, since 1995, and they have one child together: a daughter, Azariah, who is now a teenager. But he has two other children from previous relationships, including Joey, who has Down syndrome and autism. In a recent appearance<\/a> on the podcast “Club Shay Shay” with host Shannon Sharpe, he talked about how Joey’s mother abandoned them when the doctors announced he had Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s born, the doctor tells us, \u2018Hey I got bad news to tell you, shows us his hands, his feet, said he got Down syndrome,” he recalled. “He’s going to be a big challenge. I’m there with my mother, my father, and his mother, and his mother was like, ‘Yo, I can’t do this. I’m going to have to give him up for adoption.’ And my mother was like, \u2018You crazy b—-!’ Like, you ain’t giving up my – and so, we raised him.”<\/p>\n

After that, Fat Joe said he never saw Joey’s mother again.<\/p>\n

“She never visited again,” he said, adding, “She abandoned a kid. Yeah. And so we raised him by ourselves. He don’t know no other family. It’s not because we didn’t allow that; his mom’s just, she’s crazy … she has never seen him again. And it wasn\u2019t like I kept the door closed where she couldn\u2019t see her son. It was always available for her to see her son. But you know, we got wicked people out there, whether male or female. You know, it’s usually the other way around; baby come out Down syndrome, the man run the other way. You know? Shame on you.”<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Club Shay Shay (@clubshayshay)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n