Tom Daley has said that his famous work ethic is partly down to feeling like he was “letting everyone down with my sexuality”.
The Olympic diver opens up about his ambitions and work life in an interview for new book The Queer Advantage: Conversations with LGBTQ+ Leaders on the Power of Identity by Andrew Gelwicks.
In quotes reported by Glamour, Tom – who is a husband to Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and a dad to two-year-old son Robert [pictured below] – also said he was seen as an “outsider”.
“When you are always seen as an outsider, you have to work even harder” the 26-year-old says. “That also comes from myself growing up and feeling like I needed to prove myself by being good at something to make up for feeling like I was letting everyone down with my sexuality.”
Speaking about his famous coming out YouTube video from December 2013, Tom added: “It was one of the scariest things to have to do. I was so terrified to press send on that YouTube video. I wanted to get people off my back, continuously asking questions about my love life”.
“I knew I had found love. And I wanted people to know that. Doing a YouTube video was the way I communicated with my fans and was the only way I could say exactly what I wanted to say without getting my words twisted.”
Via Attitude
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