Tom Daley is talking about fatherhood, losing his own father, and the self-acceptance that being a father has brought to his life.
While in an interview with radio program Desert Island Discs with host Lauren Laverne, in part to promote his upcoming surrogacy documentary, the Olympic swimmer and YouTuber shared that he grew up feeling insecure about his sexuality. To younger Daley, being gay was wrong because it was socially unacceptable.
“To this day, those feelings of feeling less than, and feeling different, have been the real things that have given me the power and strength to be able to succeed," he told the radio host.
But, he now says that fatherhood has changed that dynamic in him.
Daley, and husband Dustin Lance Black, announced earlier this year that they would be having a baby through surrogacy. Then the little boy came into their life in June.
While Daley has already grown to be comfortable with his sexuality, the need to raise a little human being has made him forget about all the little troubles. This includes even his passion for sports.
‘If you had asked me last year, it was all about 'I need to win a gold medal,'" he said.
“You know what, there are bigger things than Olympic gold medals. My Olympic gold medal is Robbie.”
During the interview, Daley also shared that he named his son Robbie after his own father who died a year before the London Olympics. Robert Daley was always supportive of Tom and wanted to be in the front row to support his son in London.
"I couldn’t say to him 'you’re not going to be around to be on the front row dad,'" he said.
“I was holding his hand as he stopped breathing and it wasn’t until he’d actually stopped breathing and he was dead that I finally acknowledged he wasn’t invincible.”
It’s that loss and also that lesson on how to be a loving father that has guided Tom Daley in his first few months of fatherhood.
We hope for happy days for this father and his son.
Children will change your
Children will change your perspective on life. Continue with your diving and then coachingcoaching.
Looking forward to seeing Robert dive in the 2032 or 2036 Olympics. Only question does he dive for Team TH or Team USA?
Life has this way of beating
Life has this way of beating the bull**** out of us and shaping us into the adults that we're meant to become. Daley, like so many athletes before him, is maturing into an awesome human being.