Boyzone's Keith Duffy has opened up about his pride for his daughter who has received a job offer for a prestigious position with an American company.
His 22-year-old daughter Mia has overcome a number of obstacles and thrived in university, where she is now completing her fourth year studying enterprise computing.
The proud dad said: "She’s doing wonderful – we’re very, very proud of her. Mia’s very determined.
"She puts a lot of pressure on herself, but she achieves a great amount, and that was all down to appropriate intervention at the right stage of her life, which we had to fight hand over tooth for, but we got there."
The singer also spoke about what it was like to find out that Mia has autism when there was less information available about the neurodevelopmental difference.
Keith, who also shares actor son Jay with his wife Lisa, said that they started to notice that their daughter was showing "funny little traits" as a small child.
He listed Mia arranging her toys in a line, shaking and sticking one arm out as said traits.
The couple claimed that the awareness of autism was lacking at the time which led to the couple not understanding what was happening at the time.
He explained: "She was doing all kinds of things that were alien to us and we thought there was something not quite right.
"Somebody suggested autism, but we had no idea what autism was at the time – we had no education on it and we didn’t understand it."
Speaking to the Irish Mirror ahead of World Autism Acceptance Week next week, Keith made it clear that he's very grateful to have Mia in his life.
He said: "I’ve a great deal to be grateful for. I’ve got a beautiful daughter that’s very, very happy – as a human being she’s one of the most beautiful people ever."
It was recently Mia's 22nd birthday, and her doting dad took the opportunity to share a sweet tribute to her with his 149k Instagram followers.
He shared a carousel of pictures of Mia, ranging from when she was a young girl to holding her 22nd birthday cake.
Keith captioned the post: "2 years ago today My life changed forever for the absolute Better !
"We where Graced by our wonderfully kind considerate Gentle loving Just amazing Daughter Mia Jessica @miad20001151 .
"How the time has flown Happy birthday Baby You are the best human in the world I love you with all my heart.
"I’m so so proud to call you my Daughter I’m a very lucky Papa".
The comments section was quickly flooded with warm birthday wishes for Mia, who has a private Instagram account.
