Tom Daley covers Flaunt magazine in hot new shoot and talks about his coming out journey
"I always felt this pressure to overachieve, to hide or make up for things that were wrong with me.”
Olympic diver Tom Daley is revealing all, in all ways.
For Flaunt’s Fleeting Twilight issue, the athlete switched briefs for high fashion poolside, the striking visuals reflecting both his athletic body and a new era of self-expression beyond the diving board.
Beyond the pool, Daley opens up about his coming out journey, identity, fatherhood and the quiet power of creativity. Now based in LA, he’s finding balance between public life and personal passion, one stitch, one story at a time.
“Knowing I was gay growing up, or at least queer in that way, I was always a little bit like, ‘Oh gosh, how am I going to hide the biggest part of myself when all of this attention is happening?’ I always felt this pressure to overachieve, to hide or make up for things that were wrong with me,” Daley told the publication.
He goes on to say how he reclaimed his power by owning his coming out on his terms.
“My team at the time wasn’t exactly happy about me coming out at all. But then I got to a point where I was like, ‘I don’t ever want to seem ashamed of who I am,’” Daley said.
“That’s exactly why I came out on YouTube, and continue to share on YouTube,” he explained. “It was my way of being able to share exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, without any follow-up questions and no one twisting my words. I think there’s something quite powerful in the social media generation, being able to have complete autonomy over what is put out there about you.”
Daley’s also discussed his documentary Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds which serves as a heartfelt retrospective, marking the close of his competitive diving career.
“The young [footage] completely took me off guard, because I had no idea that all of that even existed.” Though initially hesitant to share such personal childhood footage, he ultimately saw it as a meaningful way to reflect on a dream fulfilled.
“If anything, it’s being able to show my kids one day that this is what my diving life and career have been like,” Tom said. “There’s something special about that.”
Daley may be stepping away from the diving board, but he’s diving even deeper into authenticity. Whether it’s fashion, fatherhood, film or fibre arts, he’s writing his next chapter on his own terms.