Joey Fatone He is best known as a member of NSYNC in the late 1990s and early 2000s, making albums and sold-out tours around the world. After the band went on hiatus, Fatone remained in the public eye through television, competing on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and ‘The Singing Bee’.But behind the success, there was a financial reality that Faton did not see. And years after the music stopped, that reality appeared on his doorstep on Christmas Eve.
Joey Fatone recalls his financial struggles
In a preview for Tuesday’s episode of Investigation Discovery’s new docuseries ‘Boy Band Confidential,’ which Faton executive produced himself, the singer revealed how close NSYNC came to bankruptcy in 2002 after going on indefinite hiatus.At the height of NSYNC’s success, Fatone bought a 10,000 square foot house on a four acre lot. The purchase made sense at the time. The money was coming in, the accountant was confident and the future was open.“The money was coming in. I asked my accountant, ‘Hey, are we good?’ “Yes, we are great.” ‘I’m good to buy this house, right?’ He says, “Your children’s children will be fine.” Now, he was probably saying it like the money was still coming in,” Faton said in the clip, adding, “You go 10 years later after that conversation, and when I go to a new accountant, I’m like, ‘Hey man, can you look at my finances and what’s going on?’ And he says, “You’ve got to get out of that house, or you’re going to fail.” “Sorry, what?” I saidA decade had passed since that respite from that warning. In between, the team went silent, the income dried up and no one raised concerns until it was almost too late.
Turn off the lights on Christmas Eve
The moment that brought everything into focus happened during the holidays. Faton had his family in his house. They were preparing Christmas Eve dinner. Cousins, aunts and her young family gathered as the power went out. The electricity bill was not paid.“There was a point at Christmas when they turned off the lights in my house because I didn’t pay the bill,” Faton said. He continued: “I almost went bankrupt. And I have a family. This is when I’m married, I have two sons. These are some of the things that happen in normal people’s lives, but then you have to figure out, for me, how do I do this without the public seeing what’s going on?”She told Entertainment Weekly that the breakup happened before she opened presents, while she was preparing dinner in the middle of the afternoon.“It was terrible. I had my family in my house. I had lucky water, but the light just went out,” he recalled. “It was actually in the evening. We’re making Christmas Eve dinner. So all my family was there, cousins and aunts. And I was like, ‘We’ve got to call those people right now to get this thing going again. This is not smart.'”
How Joey Fatone was left alone
As his financial situation worsened, Fatone reached out to people he knew, people with great wealth, hoping someone would help him. None of them did.“I was asking people for money,” he shared in the document, “the people who had the most money alive.” Everyone refused, and Fatone was left with no chance to “put his tail between his legs as a man and try to figure this out”.He sold the house and moved his then-wife, Kelly, and their two daughters, Briahna and Kloey, to his parents’ house. The family lived there for a year while they worked to rebuild.“I lived in Vegas for almost a year, busted my ass to slowly rebuild, sort of a career,” he said. “And thank you, Lord, things worked out. Things turned out better.”
Joey Fatone never got the guidance
Reflecting on how things fell apart, Fatone points to a lack of financial guidance during the years when it was most important. People around him kept telling him that everything was fine.“I was never taught anything about finance and what you really have to do,” Faton said before sharing, “And [accountant] I know he wasn’t the smartest person to help me. The ones who always said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. You’re making so much money.”
Joey Fatone’s message of hope
His experience is one of the candid accounts featured in ‘Boy Band Confidential’, a docuseries that looks at the full arc of boy band fame, what it was like inside the industry and what life was like when the spotlight was on. Faton said the series doesn’t avoid the hard parts, but it doesn’t stop there either.“You see the end of the documentary, how everyone gets the result, and I love how positive it is. It’s not 100 percent positive. Let’s be real. It’s life, and people are still going through struggles mentally and physically. But everyone has literally said, ‘You know what? I was a teenager then. I know I’m still overcoming these things. Move on,'” Faton said. “And I think that’s, for me, one of the other stories to come out of it, is to say, ‘You know what? There’s always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter which way or which way you go.“I almost filed for bankruptcy too.”The finale of ‘Boy Band Confidential’ airs Tuesday, April 14 at 9:00 PM ET/PT on Investigation Discovery. Episodes are also available to stream on HBO Max.
