4 days ago
Tom Daley was warned to keep Dustin Lance Black romance secret
Tom Daley was warned to keep his romance with Dustin Lance Black a secret.
The Olympic diver first met the Academy Award-winning screenwriter back in 2013 and they are now married with two children, but Tom has opened up about the start of their romance in his new documentary 'Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds' and revealed he was told the relationship would have to be kept quiet when they first started dating.
In the film, Tom explained: "I remember organising a party and telling my management he [Dustin Lance Black] was coming. They [my management team] said to 'Be careful being photographed with Lance, he is a big LGBT activist. You don't want people thinking you are gay'."
He went on to reveal the warning send him into a downward spiral as he fretted about how his sexuality could potentially impact his sporting career.
Tom added: "I was suddenly filled with shame. We had all sorts of crisis meetings. You're gonna lose all your sponsorship. You're gonna lose all your fans.
"Like, how are you ever gonna be able to compete in the Middle East, in Russia, in all of these countries? Filling me with fear about what I should and shouldn't do."
In the documentary, Tom also opened up about his struggle with an eating disorder which started in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics.
He said: "At the end of 2011 I was told that I would have to lose weight by our performance director at British diving. And that I was overweight and that I needed to look slimmer, leaner and more like I did in 2008.
"It was the first time where I felt that I was being looked at and judged not for how I did in the diving pool, but for how I looked. I took some quite drastic measures to make sure the food didn't stay in my stomach. It was all that I could think about in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.
"I still feel ashamed talking about it now. Once you're on the other side, it feels so easy to stop and ask for help. But when you're in it, you feel like you can't be helped.
"In my head, guys didn't have eating orders, guys didn't have any problems with mental health. Guys were meant to be macho.
"I didn't have anyone I could talk to; I felt very alone in the things I was dealing with. I tortured myself through this whole experience because I wanted to do it so badly."
