Lance Bass: Bloggers like Perez Hilton ‘bullied’ me into coming out

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

N Sync star Lance Bass has opened up about his coming out story, saying he was “bullied” by “bloggers like Perez Hilton” into coming out.

Bass came out in 2006, and the 35-year-old said in 2013 on Ricki Lake that he was scared that if he had come out during the NSYNC years, he would have “completely ruined” the band.

Now speaking to Attitude magazine, Bass has said he was given 24 hours to decide whether he wanted to come out or be outed.

He said: “Two years before I came out I was really bullied on the internet by bloggers, that’s when Perez Hilton just started and was just really malicious against me.

“So, because of the bloggers like him hounding me, all the other magazines started calling me and saying, ‘Look, we know you’re gay, you can write the story with or without us, but we have to write it,’ I decided to go with People [magazine] and I think they did a great job.

“I had 24 hours to decide if I was going to come out or not, and within 24 hours it was on the stands.”

Bass married his husband on 20 December, and yesterday celebrated with 100 couples, gay and straight in Florida at a mass wedding. Some of the couples travelled from as far away as London and Italy.

Perez Hilton this week became the seventh housemate to leave the Celebrity Big Brother house.

The blogger, continuously attracted complaints from fellow housemates and viewers due to his outlandish behaviour and outspoken remarks.

He compared living with Katie Hopkins to the AIDS crisis.

RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage criticised Hilton, saying: “Having lost 20 plus friends to AIDS – that is a bit extreme!”

Last month, Visage claimed that Hilton was “setting the LGBT community back” half a century and that he was “an embarrassment”.