2001–2007: Celebrity, hiatus, Timberlake's exit and breakup announcement
The group's fourth album, Celebrity, released on July 24, 2001, produced three singles: "Pop" (number 19 in the US), "Gone" (number 11) and "Girlfriend" (number 5). The album featured much more creative involvement from the group, who wrote and produced several of their own tracks.
Celebrity sold 1,879,955 copies in its first week, making it the second-fastest-selling album in SoundScan history at the time, only behind the group's previous album No Strings Attached. Its debut was recognized by the Billboard Music Awards with a special award for "biggest one-week sales for an album in 2001." To promote the Celebrity album, the group embarked on a four-month stadium tour entitled the PopOdyssey Tour. The tour earned over $90 million, becoming one of the biggest tours of 2001. In 2002, the band promoted their album further by embarking on the Celebrity Tour, which earned nearly $30 million.
Following the tour, the group went on an indefinite hiatus to allow for time off and at the suggestion of Timberlake, who was interested in recording a solo album. While the hiatus was initially meant to be temporary, the group never toured together again. "It started as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalanche. And, also, I was growing out of it. I felt like I cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group. And I felt like I had other music I wanted to make and that I needed to follow my heart," Timberlake later said of his decision to leave the band.
Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, and Chris Kirkpatrick have offered a different perspective on NSYNC's split, indicating that a lack of transparency left them unprepared for the prospect of a breakup.
In a 2019 interview on The Jenny McCarthy Show, Fatone said the group believed they would be reuniting because they were young and "didn't know better at first." He then went on to say that the momentum of the Justified album and tour was the reason for prolonging a group reunion that would result in new music. Recalling a conversation he'd had with his bandmates, Fatone elaborated: "I said, 'Listen, I'm all good with everybody doing their own shit. I'm totally fine with it, just let us know next time.' Meaning: I could've done a lot more shit than sit around waiting for your dumb ass while you're going out on tour. I could've, honestly. 'Cause the minute we parted our ways in the sense of a group I was like, shit, I went and did Broadway—I did Rent on Broadway, I did Little Shop of Horrors ... I was just like 'Dude, just let me know next time,' I said. 'Cause next time I ain't waiting for nobody."
Lance Bass has addressed the breakup on multiple occasions over the years, beginning with comments made shortly after Timberlake's departure and continuing in his memoir and later interviews. In September 2004, Bass told Fox News columnist Roger Friedman that new music from NSYNC "all depends on whether Justin wants to do it, and he doesn't." Several years later, while promoting his memoir, Bass told the Orlando Sentinel that the group was "definitely broken up" rather than on hiatus, adding that Timberlake "made it clear that he wouldn't be interested in discussing another album any time soon."
Bass later reflected on the entire period following the group's 2002 hiatus in his memoir, where he described passing up various professional opportunities while waiting for the group to reunite, and again in a 2020s interview on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast. In that interview, Bass explained, "Me and the guys were never on bad terms at all, you know, it's just life goes on and you know you have more interests; you have to focus on your career and it's great. The thing I was most disappointed in was not just Justin leaving the band, it's that our whole team—our record label, our management, everything like that—they all knew. They all knew it was over for three years before they told me. And so for three years I'm sitting there getting ready for a new album as everyone else knows we're moving on ... there was a sitcom I was doin'. Had to turn it down ... all kinds of stuff that I really wanted to do and focus on but I knew I couldn't because, you know, my first commitment is NSYNC. Like, this is my life."
In the Paramount+ documentary Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands, Chris Kirkpatrick described the hiatus period as "hard," recalling "a lot of animosity," "anger," and "resentment," and said he wondered whether the group would ever reunite, according to Entertainment Weekly. Lance Bass echoed similar reflections in the same documentary, stating that the record label told the group to "come back in six months" to begin work on their next album, but that "it just never happened" and the group ultimately "never got back together."
The group still attended award shows and events together, and regrouped at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards to sing a televised Bee Gees medley in tribute to that band. They were slated to begin work on a new album in the fall of 2003, but it never materialized. They performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 2004 NSYNC Challenge for the Children. According to Bass' 2007 memoir Out of Sync, written after Bass won the Human Rights Campaign Award for his work in the gay community after his coming out, a meeting was held in the summer of 2004 to discuss the band's future where Timberlake announced his decision to leave the band.
In 2005, NSYNC regrouped for the last Challenge for the Children but did not perform. In the fall of 2005, NSYNC released a greatest hits album. It included one song, "I'll Never Stop", that had previously not been released in the US. In 2007, while promoting Out of Sync, Bass confirmed the group's breakup to the press.
