Bass dated actress
Danielle Fishel of TV's
Boy Meets World throughout 1999 and 2000. Fishel said she was heavily invested in the relationship, commenting that she was "so in love" with Bass. Bass ended the relationship after one year Bass began dating
Amazing Race winner
Reichen Lehmkuhl in early 2006, a courtship that garnered
tabloid coverage and led to Bass's decision to
come out. Shortly after his split with Lehmkuhl, Bass briefly dated Brazilian model and
LXTV host
Pedro Andrade. From August 2007 to March 2008, Bass dated New York-based hairdresser Ben Thigpen. After a year and a half of dating, Bass became engaged to Michael Turchin in September 2013. Bass and Turchin married on December 20, 2014, in Los Angeles. In a 2006 interview, Bass said he has
Attention-Deficit Disorder. In August 2024, he made it known that he has
type 1.5 diabetes, which had been misdiagnosed a few years earlier as
type 2. Bass's favorite music bands are
Aerosmith, the
Goo Goo Dolls, and
Journey, He is a self-described "huge
Dr. Seuss fan", devoting an entire room in his
Jackson, Mississippi, estate to Seuss memorabilia. Bass has said he is a Christian and that he regularly attends church, though he considers himself to be
non-denominational. At age 38, Bass was diagnosed with
psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory immune disease, and took part in an ad campaign by
Amgen to raise awareness about the disease.
Sexual orientation , Georgia, October 2007 Bass
came out as
gay in a cover story for
People magazine on July 26, 2006. Celebrity gossip blogger
Perez Hilton had also been posting items on his website about Bass's orientation since September 2005, and New York
gossip column Page Six ran a blurb on July 12, 2006, that reported a sighting of Bass at a gay bar with his then-boyfriend, Lehmkuhl. In his coming out interview, Bass stated, Bass's announcement received a large amount of media attention. The American public's reaction was generally positive, with Bass receiving "overwhelming support" from many teenagers and young adults who grew up listening to 'N Sync. However, Bass received criticism from the
LGBT community when he referred to himself and his friends as "
straight-acting" in his
People interview, stating, "I call them the SAGs the straight-acting gays. We're just normal, typical guys. I love to watch football and drink beer." This comment angered some members of the LGBTQ community, who believed that Bass not only implied that
effeminate gay men were not 'normal', but further enforced unneeded
stereotypes. In a 2007 interview with
The Advocate, Bass called his comment a "mistake" and noted that he was unaware of the negative implications surrounding the term. The Human Rights Campaign stood by Bass and defended his award, responding to critics by saying, "Bass is the biggest music star since
Melissa Etheridge to come out, and maybe some people think HRC should just ignore these moments of cultural significance, but his declaration did initiate a positive, national conversation that continues today."
Marriage and family Bass began dating painter and actor Michael Turchin in January 2011 and they became engaged in September 2013. They married on December 20, 2014, at the
Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. His former NSYNC bandmates (with the exception of
Justin Timberlake, who was then headlining his
The 20/20 Experience World Tour) were in attendance. The ceremonial event was filmed and televised in a special
E! presentation:
Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding that aired on February 5, 2015. Bass and Turchin were the first same-sex couple to exchange vows on cable television. After four years of marriage, the couple decided to extend their family and have a child with the help of a
surrogate. In March 2020, Bass announced the couple had lost a baby via the surrogate having a miscarriage at eight weeks. It had been the couple's ninth
surrogacy attempt. In June 2021, Bass announced they were expecting twins by early November. Their son and daughter were born in mid-October. The Russian space program had agreed to provide an abbreviated four-month training program, but at several points his training was interrupted due to ongoing funding issues, and he finally received cosmonaut certification only after paying the remaining $450,000 himself. From 2003 to 2005, Bass spent World Space Week traveling to American high schools speaking with students about space exploration and encouraging them to explore careers in science and mathematics.
Autobiography Following public response surrounding his coming out, Bass announced that he was releasing an autobiography. The book, entitled
Out of Sync, was published on October 23, 2007. It was co-written by
The New York Times best-selling biographer Marc Eliot, who also wrote the book's introduction, and was published by
Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a division of
Simon & Schuster. The 208-page book covers what Bass describes as "the first chapter" in his life, from his childhood growing up in rural Mississippi, to his efforts to obtain a seat on a Russian space capsule and the proceeding financial issues he had with his sponsors, and culminating with Bass's decision to go public with his
sexuality. Named for his younger cousin, Amber Pulliam, who has
Down syndrome, it serves financial aid students from Mississippi's
Pine Belt who plan a career in special education. Proceeds from the auction were split between the
Child Welfare League of America, The
Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, and
Ashton Kutcher's RockWorks Foundation. That same year, Bass appeared on an episode of
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with a donation to a Russian woman to save a camp for disabled children in Russia. Bass is a member of the
Environmental Media Association's board of directors. He has also been involved with Animal Avengers,
Shannon Elizabeth's animal rescue organization. He has two dogs which he adopted from a rescue shelter, both of whom he posed with in a PETA ad urging people to adopt rather than buy animals. In August 2007, Bass wrote a guest commentary for
LOGO's "Visible Vote '08" blog, in which he expressed support for
gay marriage. In September 2007, Bass participated in a series of
GLAAD television advertisements promoting tolerance for the LGBTQ community. Bass has also been involved in fundraising for the
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. ==Discography==