It’s a moment we could have only dreamed about in, say, 1999: Britney Spears meeting Lance Bass’ twins—and calling herself “a new auntie.” (If you were around, there’s no way you forgot, but for you young folks, Spears was the pop princess of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and Bass was one-fifth of ‘N Sync, which also included one Justin Timberlake, who was at the time dating Spears. Follow that?)
Spears shared photos of her meeting Bass’ 20-month-old twins, Violet Betty and Alexander James, who he shares with husband Michael Turchin. “They are absolutely gorgeous babies !!!” Spears wrote. Alongside Spears, Bass, and the twins, Spears’ husband Sam Asghari was pictured. This comes a month after Bass revealed that their initial plans to introduce the babies to Spears failed, Page Six reports.
Bass said on his podcast “Frosted Tips” that Spears had “reached out through her people” with the intent to “meet the kids and all that.” But, he said, her team put a “stop” to it.
“You have to talk through people,” Bass said. “It’s very strange.”
All’s well that ends well, and, while Spears may not be the twins’ biological aunt, she and Bass actually are related, People reports—they are sixth cousins, once removed.
“Are you kidding me?” Bass said in a 2021 episode of Ancestry’s 2 Lies & A Leaf series. “This is amazing. Oh my gosh! Look, I wanted to be related to the Queen. Well, now I’m related to the Queen of Pop!”
Both have Southern roots: Bass is from Laurel, Mississippi, and Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in nearby Kentwood, Louisiana. “That is so crazy though, ‘cause, I mean, I feel like she’s my little sister, and this whole time she’s been my little cousin,” Bass said. “And it makes sense because we were born an hour from each other. This is so cool. For some reason, I always felt like we looked like family, even when we were kids. I mean, this means so much to me. She is like family to me, so the fact that we are blood-related is amazing.”
Spears is, in addition to her auntie duties, preparing to release her memoir, The Woman in Me, which is due out October 24. The tell-all will reveal “for the first time her incredible journey [and] strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history,” according to a press release from Gallery Books, her publisher. The book “illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms.”
