Lance Bassand his husbandMichael Turchinare going to be dads!
After Bass shared ahorror movie trailer TikTokhinting at the news Tuesday afternoon, PEOPLE can exclusively share that the artist, 34, and*NSYNCalum, 42 — who have been married since 2014 — are expecting their first children: boy/girl twins in November.
“It has been quite the journey,” Bass tells PEOPLE, referring to years ofsurrogacy attempts, failed IVF treatments and amiscarriage.
Read below for the full Q&A:
PEOPLE: Congratulations — so excited for you two! I know it’s been several years in the making — what’s it like to know you’re finally going to be dads?!
Lance:You have your vision of how it’s all going to go, right? When we went into IVF and surrogacy, we had no idea what it was all about. Pretty much everyone we’ve known had bad luck at the beginning. The first time they tried it, it just did not work. And I feel like that is such a common thing. And it’s great that we’re able to talk about this because a lot of times I would believe that couples feel very alone in that situation. But to know that other people are going through the same exact thing, it’s really comforting.
Michael:We went through nine different egg donors, which is rare. We got all the way down the path of about to retrieve their eggs. Some just wouldn’t produce enough eggs; some weren’t good genetic matches. If you’re going to be a match, you don’t want to even risk it.
Lance Bass and Michael Turchin.Courtesy of Lance Bass
Lance:When we were pregnant last year, our surrogate miscarried while being pregnant with twins. When you fast forward and be like, “Oh, what’s the wedding going to be like? Oh, if they’re going to have kids, I’m going to be a grandparent?” You just automatically put this in your head. And it’s very disappointing when that dream gets popped.
Michael:This time around, we had to start all over again from the beginning. Not only did we need to get a new egg donor now because we found out she had early lupus, but on top of that, when we did our egg retrieval, we only had two healthy embryos. Normally, the number’s much higher. So we put both in and once she miscarried, we had to start all over from scratch again this past year.
Lance:And during a pandemic.
PEOPLE: That’s awesome. Well, what was it like to know your surrogate was pregnant?
Lance:Because of what we’ve been through the last four years, we were very cautious to get excited. And it kind of sucks because when you find out you’re pregnant, you want to celebrate with your family. You start planning their future in your head already, but we were so scared because we didn’t want to go through the pain again of losing them. We told our friends and family about the ninth week, when we finally felt comfortable. You think you’re going to jinx it or something.
Courtesy of Lance Bass
PEOPLE: What was it like deciding whose sperm to use? I know you talked about genetic matches. Was it difficult?
Lance:It wasn’t very difficult. We had been talking about having a family since we met. We’ve been together for 10 years. We always knew that if we were going to start the family, we wanted to go for twins just because Michael’s a twin — he’s a boy/girl twin. And he just loved that experience. I always wanted to have a twin, but we’re like, “Well, that’s so perfect because now we can do one of mine, one of yours.” It was a no-brainer!
Michael:When we did the egg retrieval, he fertilized half, I fertilized half. And luckily, they all turned out great.
Lance: We took the two healthiest embryos, and put them in, and it perfectly fit with our plans.
PEOPLE: I feel like we’ll be able to tell when they come out as carbon copies of you two! What’s it like navigating the surrogate’s pregnancy as gay men?
Lance:I grew up in this family unit where I dreamt of having a kid and having that dynamic. And sometimes in your life you feel like, “Okay, I’ll never be able to have that. I’m not supposed to have that.” But now we’re realizing, “No, we do need that. We deserve that and we can have this.” And I love that our mentality is definitely changing in the community. There are not many great examples of gay couples having families in the public eye. We knew that we wanted to be very open and transparent with our experience because we wanted gay couples to be able to relate to us and say, “Oh my gosh, we’re going through that too.” Or like, “Oh, now that’s, hopefully, what we can do.” And give them a kind of a blueprint of how to do it. If you want to start that family, start that family. It’s going to be incredible.
PEOPLE: How do you feel about having both a boyanda girl?
Lance:We always knew we wanted at least two kids, it would be nice to have a boy and a girl just to feel the experiences of raising both or whatever they end up being. I think it’s just amazing that science has gotten this far where we can make the healthiest human beings ever. And I hope in our lifetime, we’ll be able to see the whole world be able to do this.
Michael:Yeah. And hopefully this’ll become more affordable. Because especially with so many gay families, they end up spending so much of their money, all their savings, for that one try and it doesn’t work. It’s like, “Well, what do we do now?” So hopefully it moves in that direction where it becomes attainable for everyone.
PEOPLE: When are the babies due?
Lance:In early November, but I need them to get here before Halloween, because I need them to be Halloween babies. They have no choice but to love Halloween because I’m obsessed and they’re going to be obsessed.
PEOPLE: And your TikTok announcement taps into that, right?
Michael:At first, we were like, “Yeah, let’s just do a simple TikTok video.” But then, of course, Lance put it to a new level.
Lance:I like doing things big.
PEOPLE: What are you most looking forward to with your babies?
Michael:Just the fact that they’ll, I mean hopefully, like each other. I like my sister, we were best friends and that was the cool part growing up — I always had a best friend with me all the time. I was never bored. That connection is super rare to have with a sibling when you’re that close. It’s just a really special relationship and I’m excited to see that play out with our kids.
Listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Dayfor an exclusive interview with Lance Bass.
PEOPLE: I love that. Who were the first people you told about the pregnancy?
Lance:It was definitely our mothers.
Michael:Yeah. And I waited till after you told your mom.
Lance:I can’t wait. I can’t keep my mouth shut, but my mom’s the one that was the most worried. She didn’t even want to know.
Lance:And then of course our trusty assistant, Lisa. The star ofThe Circle. She saw the whole process, so she knew everything.
PEOPLE: How’s the house going to change?
Michael:We’re adding a nursery and a new bathroom for them. So they have their own little space.
PEOPLE: I love that. Is there something that you guys were most looking forward to being dads — each of you?
Michael:I’m going to steal his answer. I’m looking forward to celebrating all the holidays through the eyes of a child now. We’re adults now and Christmas kind of loses its luster, all the holidays do.
Lance:It’s way better through a child’s eyes.
Michael:Exactly. Like we know we’ve been through it all like, “Oh, another holiday.”
Lance:I’m excited to be able to take them to Disney for the first time and their first Halloween trick or treating.
PEOPLE: Have you guys thought of names?
PEOPLE: So you’re saying that Justin, JC, Chris and Joey are off the table?
Lance:Well, they could still be.
Michael:Yeah, actually that’s one of their names. The full name. That’s the boy’s name. [laughs]
source: people.com
