Lance Bass came out to Britney Spears two years before publicly coming out: Why she 'chuckled'

Lance Bass came out to Britney Spears way before he publicly announced that he's gay.

The former *NSYNC star shared the story of his coming out during his appearance on Monday's episode of "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen," revealing that he opened up about his sexuality to Spears following her shotgun wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander in January 2004.

"I remember you telling me that Britney Spears was the first person -- one of the first people -- who you came out to," Cohen said to Bass.

"Yes. It was the night that she got married the first time in Vegas to Jason. So I went up to Vegas to kind of see the craziness that was happening. And she was a little upset once she realized what she had done because, you know, it was a funny thing," Bass recalled. "And then she started, like, really crying and, like, she was so upset."

Spears infamously tied the knot at a Las Vegas wedding chapel and got the marriage annulled 55 hours later.

"And so I took her to her room and we were sitting on her bed and she wouldn't stop crying, so I was like, 'I'm gay,'" Bass went on. "And it made her stop crying... She chuckled."

Bass, 40, and Spears, 37, had been friends for years, as they both came up in the music industry together at the turn of the millennium. Spears also dated Bass' bandmate, Justin Timberlake, for three years a the height of *NYSYNC's fame.

The pop star, who is now married to Michael Turchin, would go on to wait two more years before publicly coming out as gay on a July 2006 cover of People magazine.