Lance Bass Shares Sweet Moment NSYNC’s Joey Fatone Discovered He Was Gay

Lance Bass is recalling the relief he felt when his *NSYNC bandmate Joey Fatone accidentally learned that he was gay — after discovering Bass and his boyfriend in a private moment.

via: Pink News

Bass and Fatone both spoke of the moment in an interview for Fatone’s upcoming docu-series Boy Band Confidential, with a clip from the series being shared by USA Today on 13 April.

“We go out one night, we all go back to Lance’s house,” Fatone recalls.

“I pass out in one of his guest bedrooms. I wake up at, like, 3:00 in the morning. I’m like, ‘Ah, I got to leave.’ I go to his bedroom, open up the door. There’s nobody in there.”

He explained how he went to check Bass’ office, saying: “I open the door, and he’s sitting there, and there’s a guy straddling on top of him.”

Bass continued the story. “I was at my computer and my boyfriend at the time – my very, very first boyfriend – was sitting on my lap,” he remembered.

As per the story, Fatone “got quiet” and apologised for walking in, but Bass encouraged Fatone to enter the room so they could talk.

“I was like, ‘Surprise!’ He’s like, ‘Oh, please. I don’t care,’” said Bass. “I knew he wouldn’t care, but it was just so nice to hear those words, and finally [have] one of the members of your group know and be like, ‘I don’t care.’”

When Bass asked Fatone to keep the news to himself, Fatone was more than happy to oblige.

“I go, ‘Lance, I love you,’” Fatone recalled. “I said, ‘You’re my brother. You let me know when it’s right for you to tell. I’m not saying nothing to the guys.’”

‘I back him up 100 per cent’

Bass eventually publicly came out as gay in 2006 in an interview with People. At the time, he said: “I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys’ careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said [that I was gay], it would overpower everything.”

He continued: “I didn’t know: Could that be the end of NSYNC? So I had that weight on me of like, ‘Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it’s bad.’ So I just never did.”

Fatone also contributed to the interview, speaking in support of Bass for his sexuality and his decision to come out.

“He took years to really think about how he was going to tell everyone,” Fatone said. “I back him up 100 per cent.”