Tom Daley Reveals 'I Hate the Way I Look,' Opens Up about Body Image Issues

Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley opened up about an issue that might surprise many: The super-fit athlete has "horrible body issues" that have haunted him for years.

"I had eating disorders in 2012," Daley told UK newspaper The Times of London in a recent feature story. "Growing up in the initial ages of social media and gay culture, being held to such a high standard, it's really difficult," he went on to say. "Now I need to just have a healthy relationship with my body."

Daley made his admission after a simmering photo shoot in the Hollywood Hills. "He is California hot," The Times report said of the shoot. "Boy band perfect. Olympian toned."

And yet, after the camera's work was done, Daley revealed more than its lens could see, telling the newspaper's journalist, "I struggled over there," meaning during the shoot.

In a thumbnail description of Daley's career, the writeup recalled that the world-class diver "went to his first Olympics in 2008 aged 14, won the World Championships at 15, won his first Olympic medal when he was 18 at London 2012 – he now has five including gold in Tokyo in 2021 – and in 2022 was awarded an OBE for services to diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity."

"But it came at a price," the article went on to add – a price that included "talk[ing] to the cameras – often smiling – about being bullied at school, about the death of his dad, Robert, when he was 17, and about his sexuality," all while "he was suffering from disordered eating and crashing grief, from anxiety so extreme he would bite his nails until they bled..."

Daley's life might seem picture-perfect from the outside. The 31-year-old is married to Oscar-winning American screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, with whom he has two sons; he maintains what appears to be an effortless and effervescent social media presence; he's a TV personality with an upcoming gig on a celebrity edition of the hit show "The Traitors" as well as starring in a knitting reality show called "The Game of Wool," and he's the subject of an upcoming documentary titled "Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds." He's an avid knitter who runs his own knitwear company, Made with Love.

Daley also maintains a physique that most people would consider flawless, and yet, to Daley, his current condition falls short. "I know if I'm rational about it, I should be completely happy," Daley told The Times, "but seeing videos of what I looked like in the Olympics, I'm, like, 'Why can't I look like that again?'"

His physical complaints include genuine medical issues. "Everything hurts," Daley told The Times. "My knees are screwed, my back is screwed, my hips are always tight."

"Diving, after all, is a collision sport," The Times noted. "The force with which you hit the water is enough to break bones and split skin, detach retinas and burst eardrums."

Daley suffers from more than bodily dissatisfaction, though. Since his retirement following his silver medal victory at last summer's Olympics in Paris, Daley suggested, he doesn't quite know who he is any more.

"When I watch competitions it's as if I'm a spirit looking in from above, thinking, 'If I was in that, I would have done this,'" Daley mused. "It's really hard. You've got to be in it to win it. But when you're sitting on the sidelines it's like you've been benched for eternity."

The Olympian's comments to The Times weren't the first time he has spoken out about body dysmorphia issues. He wrote about the subject in his 2021 memoir "Coming Up for Air," and, in an interview with UK newspaper the Guardian at the time, he disclosed that he has "had a very strange relationship with food and my body image."

"Men always seem to not have eating disorders, and it's hard to talk about it," Daley went on to tell the Guardian. "But I would consider myself to be someone that has very much struggled with body image, and eating, and feeling guilty and shameful of the things that I eat."

In that same interview, Daley characterized those issues as being a side effect of his career as a diver.

"You have these body issues as an athlete," he told the Guardian, adding that, "especially as a diver, you're up on the diving board and you're so naked, so visible, so it's quite hard to be content with your body, because you always want to be better."

Those feelings were the result of internalizing messages from the outside, Daley suggested, telling the newspaper that "it was hammered into me that I was overweight and needed to lose weight in order to perform."

Then there was the fact that he is gay – a truth he was encouraged to suppress at an early age. "When you know something is so inherently 'wrong' with you, or you're told within society that something is 'wrong', you feel as though you have to overachieve in everything that you do to disguise or make up for that thing," Daley ruminated.

In the upcoming documentary, he's even more pointed, saying that when he told his management team he wanted to come out as gay, "I was told by so many people that it was going to be the worst decision I'd ever made and that I should just keep it a secret."

"It got blown into such big proportion, or felt like it, because we were having meetings with crisis strategists as though it was going to be this disaster," Daley added.

He also pointed to the sensationalization of young athletes' bodies in the media. "I don't know if there would be shoots of maybe 14-, 15-, 16-year-old boys in their trunks, with water thrown all over them, now," he said in the 2021 interview. "I know there definitely wouldn't be girls doing that."

Yet, that degree of personal exposure seems to be part of the gig for such a high-profile athlete, and Daley has given the public what it wants in social media posts, from a video clip of himself and fellow speedo-clad athletes dancing to Charli xcx's "Apple," to poolside snaps of his sculpted physique, to promotional images that show off his clothing line – and his own tight frame.

Daley dove deep into other issues during the interview with The Times, including how he suffered from intense anxiety and overwhelming OCD – afflictions he suggested were much worse during his diving days.

Now, his post-retirement disorientation notwithstanding, he's found some solace, not least from making his passion for knitting into a high-profile hobby as well as a successful business venture.

"Not necessarily everything should be knitted," Daley told The Times, "but anything you see, you can knit." As examples, he cited his own home life, which is replete with "knitted lampshades, chandeliers, teapot cozies, pillows, blankets, kids' clothes, kids' toys, my clothes."

Added the still-youthful champion and household name, "I just bloody love knitting. It has been such a blessing for me. Really."