When it comes to boy bands of the late ‘90s, NSYNC was one of the biggest. Alongside the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, they ruled the pop music scene, churning out hit after hit well into the early 2000s. From “I Want You Back” and “Tearin’ Up My Heart” to “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the five NSYNC members were responsible for some of the most memorable tunes of the turn-of-the-millennium pop era.
But following the band’s successful Celebrity Tour in 2002, the boys began pursuing other projects. And while the reigning narrative has always been that the group split because of Justin Timberlake’s solo success, Lance Bass says that there was no big drama around their breakup.
“It took us a while to naturally say, ‘You know what? I think … we might be done,’” Bass told the Huffington Post in 2018. “And that’s how it was. It wasn’t anything crazy – no big, crazy fight to break us up. We’re all still close and we talk daily, but I guess it just had run its time.”
Where Are The NSYNC Members Now?
So where are these five guys today? While a lot has changed since NSYNC stopped performing together, each member has become successful in their other pursuits. Let’s take a look at what the No Strings Attached singers are doing now.
Justin Timberlake
We all know that Justin Timberlake has been the most successful NSYNC member when it comes to the world of entertainment. His solo career took off after the release of his debut album, Justified, in 2002, which was followed by FutureSex/LoveSounds in 2006, The 20/20 Experience and The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 in 2013, and Man of the Woods in 2018. All told, he’s won 10 Grammy Awards, 7 American Music Awards, 9 Billboard Music Awards, and 11 MTV Video Music Awards, including the coveted Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Timberlake has also carved out a successful acting career for himself, appearing in movies like Alpha Dog, The Social Network, Bad Teacher, and Friends With Benefits. He became a beloved SNL host and even won four Emmy Awards for his appearances, including one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the classic digital short, Dick in a Box.
In terms of his personal life, the 40-year-old star was linked with a number of celebs after his very public split from Britney Spears, including Cameron Diaz, Jenna Dewan, Alyssa Milano, and Jessica Biel. He and Biel married in 2012 and have two children together — Silas, born in 2015, and Phineas, born in 2020.
While Timberlake’s image has remained mostly squeaky clean, he did get caught up in a few controversies. There was the notorious “wardrobe malfunction” with Janet Jackson during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show, for which he recently issued an apology. The “Sexyback” singer also faced scrutiny in 2019 when he was snapped getting a little too close to his Palmer co-star Alisha Wainwright while shooting on location in New Orleans.
But all in all, JT has done just fine, emerging from his NSYNC boy band years to become one of the most successful and well-known entertainers of the 21st century. In fact, he’s working on a new solo album right now.
JC Chasez
JC Chasez was eager to pursue a career beyond NSYNC and says that the band’s split was meant to be. “For us, it happened organically,” he told the Huffington Post in 2018.
“After you do something for a certain amount of time, you get into a rhythm of it and then new things spark your curiosity; you need new brain food. At that time, we just felt like we had exhausted every kind of idea for what we were doing and we just felt like ‘OK, let’s do something different.’ So, that’s what we did.”
Chasez released his debut album, Schizophrenic, in 2004, but it was nowhere near as successful as JT’s debut effort. He started work on a second album in 2007 — and even brought Timberlake on board to help him write and produce a few songs — but a split with his record company ended up delaying then squashing its release.
Realizing he was probably never going to achieve a Timberlake level of fame, Chasez pivoted to songwriting and producing. He has written songs for artists like Matthew, Backstreet Boys, Taemin, Liz, and NU’EST. He also spent seven seasons as a judge on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew.
While Chasez has always been tight-lipped about his personal life, the performer is happily in a relationship with his girlfriend Jennifer HuYoung.
Chris Kirkpatrick
Of all the NSYNC members, Chris Kirkpatrick may have been the one who struggled most with the demise of the band. “I don’t know if I was ready for it to end,” he told the Huffington Post back in 2018.
“In my 20s and into my early 30s, I was in a band touring the world every day. You wake up and there’s a schedule on your floor saying you have a photo shoot this time, a meet-and-greet this time, a radio interview this time, a TV appearance this time and a show this time. Then, suddenly, you wake up and there’s nothing. You’re like, ‘Oh man, where do I go now?’”
Fortunately, the 49-year-old performer figured it out. From 2007 to 2008, he appeared in the reality show Mission Man Band, alongside fellow boy banders Jeff Timmons of 98° and the late Rich Cronin of LFO. He also starred in the second season of the CMT reality show Gone Country and voiced the character of Chip Skylark on The Fairly OddParents.
In 2013, Kirkpatrick married his long-time girlfriend, Karly Skladany. The couple have one child together, a son named Nash, who was born in 2017. The proud dad frequently posts pics and videos of his family on Instagram.
Lance Bass
Lance Bass has been quite busy since NSYNC called it quits. He jumped into the world of acting, appearing in movies like On the Line, Zoolander, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Cursed. He also tried his hand at live theater with a six-month run in the Broadway musical Hairspray. In 2008, he was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, finishing in third place behind Warren Sapp and Brooke Burke.
In 2006, the former NSYNCer made headlines when he came out as gay in a cover story for People. “The thing is, I’m not ashamed – that’s the one thing I want to say,” he proudly told the magazine. “I don’t think it’s wrong, I’m not devastated going through this. I’m more liberated and happy than I’ve been my whole life. I’m just happy.” Bass released his autobiography, Out of Sync, the following year, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Bass started dating actor Michael Turchin in 2011, and the couple tied the knot in a 2014 ceremony with most of his NSYNC band members in attendance. In 2021, Bass and Turchin became parents—they welcomed twins Violet and Alexander to the world on October 13 via surrogate.
Also in 2021, Bass’s name was in the news when his longtime assistant, Lisa Delcampo, played catfish and impersonated the former NSYNC member on the Netflix reality game show, The Circle. Luckily, Bass was in on the scheme. “We’re both huge The Circle fans,” he told Billboard in an April 2021 interview. “So when she had the opportunity to audition, I was like, ‘You have to do this,’ not knowing she was going to go in as me. I thought it was brilliant. If there’s anyone who would be able to play as me, the only person that could do that is Lisa.”
Joey Fatone
Joey Fatone says he had to put his own career on hold for a bit in the wake of Justin Timberlake’s success. “We thought we were getting back together,” he told the Huffington Post.
“It was, ’OK, after [Justin] does his thing, blah, blah, blah, we’ll get back together and move forward and do what we got to do. And then it was like, nope. The record company wanted to push Justin, I guess, is what it was. He got bigger and bigger, which is honestly great for him and I’m totally happy for him in that sense, but it was more or less weird that there wasn’t an explanation to say we’re not going to do it, period. I was a little bit on hold for a moment and it was like, ‘OK, we got to s&*t or get off the pot.’”
Which he did! Fatone appeared in the 2002 hit indie movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding (and returned for its sequel 14 years later). He also performed on Broadway in musicals like Rent and Little Shop of Horrors and hosted shows like The Singing Bee, Celebrity Circus, and TV Guide’s red carpet pre-shows. Fatone was even the announcer for host Steve Harvey on Family Feud from 2010 until 2015. Although he’s no longer a part of Family Feud, he’s still in the game show world. He’s been the host of GSN’s Common Knowledge since 2019.
And before Bass made his Dancing With the Stars debut, Fatone appeared on the show’s fourth season in 2007. He made it all the way to second place, losing to Olympic skater Apolo Ohno.
As for his personal life, Fatone married long-time girlfriend (and high school sweetheart!) Kelly Baldwin in 2004. The couple has two children together — Briahna Joely, born in 2001, and Kloey Alexandra, born in 2010. While the couple divorced in 2019, the pair continue to co-parent their kids, whom Fatone was thrilled to spend more time with due to the pandemic. “I travel a lot, so being home was nice,” he told Forbes of his lockdown experience. I’m always living out of a suitcase. So to be home and to be with my kids is more of a blessing than anything. It’s been more of a blessing and a curse for me.”