Joey Fatone lost power to his house on Christmas because he couldn't pay the bill: 'I was asking people for money' (exclusive sneak peek)

NSYNCdid not sing "When the Lights Go Out," but that's exactly what happened toJoey Fatoneone Christmas.

In an exclusive sneak peek (below) from Tuesday's episode of ID'snew docuseriesBoy Band Confidential, on which Fatone serves as executive producer, the boy bander opens up about nearly going bankrupt after NSYNC went on indefinite hiatus in 2002. During NSYNC’s heyday, the singer purchased a 10,000-square-foot house on four acres.

"Money was coming in. I asked my accountant, 'Hey, are we good?' 'Yeah, we're great.' 'I'm OK to buy this house, right?' He goes, 'Your kids' kids' kids will be fine.' Now, he was saying that as if money was probably still coming in," Fatone says in the clip. "You go 10 years later after that conversation, and when I go to a new accountant, I say, 'Hey man, can you look at my finances and what's going on?' And he goes, 'You need to get out of that house or you're gonna go bankrupt.' I went, 'I'm sorry, what?'"

It all came to a head when his holiday celebrations suddenly got interrupted.

"There was one point during Christmas they shut off the lights to my house because I didn't pay the bill," Fatone shares. "I almost was gonna go bankrupt. And I have a family. This is when I am married, I have two kids. These are certain things that happen in normal people's lives as well, but then you have to figure out, for me, how do I do this without the public even watching of what's going on?"

The shutoff happened before presents were opened, Fatone tellsEntertainment Weekly. "It was horrible. I had family over at my house. Good thing I had the water, but the power just wentpew," he recalls. "It was actually in the afternoon. We're cooking Christmas Eve dinner kind of thing. So all my family was there, cousins and aunts. And I was like, 'We need to call these people up right now to get this thing back on. This is not smart.'"

In the doc, the singer reveals he turned to others to alleviate his financial woes. "I was asking people for money," he shares. These were people who "had the most money in life," but they all declined to help. He then had to "put my tail between my legs as a man to try to figure this out." TheDancing With the Starsalum ended up selling his house and moving his then-wife Kelly, to whom he was married from 2004-19, and their daughters, Briahna and Kloey, in with his parents for a year.

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"I lived in Vegas for almost a year, busted my ass to slowly build back up kind of a career in a sense," he says. "And thank goodness, Lord, things were able to roll. Things came out better."

The incident was a "big eye-opener for me," Fatone tells EW. Like many young stars who skyrocket to fame, he was ill-equipped to handle what comes next after the spotlight shifts to the next big thing and money stops rolling in like it used to.

"I was never taught anything as far as financials and what you really need to do," Fatone tells EW. "And the [accountant] that I had was not the brightest person to help me out. They were always the ones going, ‘Don't worry, you're gonna be fine. You're making so much money.'"

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The& Julietalum's tale is one of the many vulnerable stories he and his fellow boy banders recall in the doc that explores theups and downsof superstardom, and coming out on the other side.

"You see the end of the doc, how everybody does have an outcome, and I like how it's positive. It's not 100 percent all positive. Let's be real. It's life and people still going through the struggles mentally and physically. But everybody has literally gone, 'You know what? I was a teen then. I've learned certain things. I know I have to get over these certain humps and keep moving forward,'" Fatone says. "And I think that's, for me, one of the other stories to get out there, to go, 'You know what? There's always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter what way or which way you go.' Even me almost filing for bankruptcy."

The finale ofBoy Band Confidentialairs Tuesday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Investigation Discovery (ID). Episodes are also available on HBO Max.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly