Lance Bass opened up about a hurdle he faced after coming out as gay in 2006, where he was attached to an unnamed sitcom on the CW network that was thrown out because of his sexuality.

The *NSYNC star revealed the personal fact on a recent episode of the Politickin’ Podcast. He said the series was preparing to shoot its pilot when production came to a screeching halt after Bass came out as gay in a 2006 People cover story.

The CW had just launched at the time, after a merger between television networks UPN and The WB.

“I had a sitcom with The CW at the time, and we were about to shoot the pilot and this came out and they were like, ‘We can’t do the show anymore. Like, they have to believe that you’re straight to play a straight character,’” Bass shared. “Every casting director I knew, they’re like, ‘Lance, we can’t cast you because they can’t look past… You’re too famous for being gay now that they can’t look at you as anything other than that.’ So, I lost everything.”

His agents even turned their backs on him, as well.

“Everyone just kind of fell off, like, ‘I don’t know what we can do with you now,’” he recalled. “And so I had to completely restart and rebrand at that moment.”

During the discussion, Bass explained that he feared coming out due to the effect that it would have on his career. After all, following his success as a member of NSYNC, Bass took on various other acting roles, including his role in the 2001 romantic comedy “On The Line” and his cameo appearance in “Zoolander.”

But Bass didn’t have much of a choice and felt he had to come out because he was “outed by the press” and was given nothing more than 24 hours to say something.

“It was a crazy, scary situation because all the examples I’ve ever had of anyone coming out, especially in entertainment, was that it’s a career killer,” he said. “You’re dead. Everything — your career’s over. People are gonna hate you. Your church has now kicked you out. Your family hates you. Just every negative thing you could think about.”

His career had definitely changed after he made his sexuality known.

“They were right about that, it was definitely a career killer,” he acknowledged. “But, not too long after that, I just saw a lot of success stories in entertainment and I love that… it’s actually a good thing to be yourself these days.”

Fortunately, things began to look up for Bass. He said he was eventually approached by those who initially shunned him because of his sexuality.

“A lot of the casting directors for sure, they were like, ‘Yeah, that was really dumb.’ And they’ve actually cast me in a lot of things since, which is really funny and ironic,” he said. “But I never hold grudges at all. I’m very understanding — I get it, business is business is business. It sucks, but I never can hold grudges.”

Since then, the entertainer has gone on to star in other films and television projects. He was a contestant on Season 7 of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2008 and had six-month Broadway run playing Corny Collins in the long-running production of “Hairspray.” He voiced animated characters on the children’s series “Bossy Bear” and “Trolls Band Together.”

He also played different versions of himself on “Bojack Horseman,” “The Rookie,” and “How I Met Your Father.”

Last year, Bass and the rest of NSYNC reunited for a new single “Better Place.”