Although one might expect life for Tom Daley to have slowed down since his retirement from the Olympics in 2024, this isn’t the case for the diver, as he parents two young sons with his husband, Dustin Lance Black in Los Angeles.
The 31-year-old has briefly returned to London ahead of the premiere of his new discovery+ documentary, 1.6 Seconds. The 90-minute documentary charts his Olympic career, from starting off in the pool as a young child up until his final competitive dives.
Tom’s young children
When HELLO! asked the father-of-two if he’d want his kids to follow in his footsteps, he mused: “I want to be led by what they want to do.
“The way that you can be your happiest is finding something you’re passionate about, that you love to do, and then make it something that you do every day. That’s my hope for them.“
The star is incredibly proud of his two sons, with the pair often appearing in his YouTube vlogs. Eldest son Robbie, seven, is almost becoming a star in his own right. “Kids growing up now in the age of social media, that’s what they see as the norm,” Tom told HELLO!.
© Instagram“Robbie’s got a lot of personality, but there’s also a part of me, with everything I went through as a kid, I want to protect him as much as possible from that or support him through what that looks like.“
When addressing how they’ve changed his life, he added: “The way that I exercise now, running around after them, my life has changed in that way. The way that I think about exercise now is staying happy and healthy for long enough to be able to keep up with them.”
© InstagramTom and Dustin welcomed their firstborn in 2018. Five years later, in 2023, they celebrated the arrival of their second son, Phoenix Rose, after a private surrogacy journey. The couple have no plans to expand their brood further, with Tom telling HELLO!: “Family of four is good!”.
“Robbie is only seven and Phoenix is two, we’re potty training him currently. The other day we were in the pool, and this might be TMI, but he’s like, ‘Papa, poo poo’. And then before we know it, there’s turd on the poolside.”
© Bruce GlikasDifficult life
Tom grew up in the public eye, with the star first becoming part of the national consciousness when he became when he became Britain’s youngest competitor in the 2008 Olympics. Although we were seeing his many triumphs, behind closed doors there was a much different story.
The diver experienced bullying in his school life and at the age of 18, after being told to lose weight, he developed an eating disorder. In 2011, a year before competing in the London 2012 Olympics, he endured the devastating loss of his father to a brain tumour.
© Getty ImagesReflecting on the emotional moments, Tom revealed that he only recently felt able to watch family footage featuring his father, as it had previously triggered overwhelming emotions.
“Even just seeing my dad on screen, it’s not something that I do,” he said. “Just seeing my dad on-screen and hearing his voice automatically makes me [emotional]. There was a period in my life where it was ‘the good old days’ and it was right before everything started become more challenging.”
© Getty ImagesWhen he was training for the 2012 Olympics, he was informed that his coach, Alexei Evangulov, wanted him to lose weight. In the documentary, he opens up about the moment saying he would find ways to make sure that the food didn’t “stay in his stomach”.
Addressing his previous eating disorder, he revealed that while he knew he was looking “fine”, he was still suffering from body dysmorphia. He said: “Once you’ve had an eating disorder, you always have a very different relationship with food; you question everything that you eat, the amount of exercise you’re doing, the calories you’re burning.
© Getty Images“Rationally, when I look at myself, I know that I’m fine, but that’s not what the eating disorder and the body dysmorphia sees. The irrational part of your brain makes you question everything that you do, making yourself not eat and then binge eating. With social media and the expectations of how you’re meant to look, it can be challenging. Now that I’m retired, I have to get used to the fact that I’m not able to train six hours a day, six days a week, and alter expectations in what I do to stay happy and healthy.”
Coming out
Despite the challenges he faced growing up, Tom describes coming out as gay as the moment he began living as “truly and authentically myself”. The diver made history in 2013 when he released a personal video on his YouTube channel where he came out. Reflecting on the moment, which happened over ten years ago, he said: “Coming out at the time was an incredibly scary thing to do, but it allowed me to be free to be truly and authentically myself.
“It took away that weight of feeling like I had to hide, it allowed me to fly in ways I never thought I might be able to. Everybody has to go on their own coming out journey, and people will figure out what is best for them. It’s one thing coming out in the UK versus somewhere where it’s criminalised. Taking your time and having that person that can support you is important.”
Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds is available to stream on discovery+ from 1 June.
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