Olympic Diver Tom Daley Talks Struggles with Eating Disorder & Body Dysmorphia

Tom Daley is opening up about his longtime struggle with an eating disorder and body dysmorphia.

The 31-year-old British diver previously revealed his struggles in his 2021 memoir and now he’s sharing more insight ahead of the launch of his Channel 4 show The Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter.

Tom chatted with Radio Times about developing the eating disorder while training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London when he was just a teenager.

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“There was so much pressure. It was a home Olympic Games. When was I ever going to get a chance to dive in front of a home crowd again, with all my friends and family there?” Tom said. “I was also aware that the funding of British diving was sitting on my shoulders because if we didn’t win a medal, funding for diving was going to be cut. So it was huge pressure and I struggled with all kinds of things in the build-up to that – eating disorder issues and anxiety issues.”

Tom said he realized he was dealing with an eating disorder “at the end of 2011. I realized that people within British diving were looking at me as not just a diver, but also what I actually looked like. I got told I was overweight.”

“I had absolutely no idea what I was doing at that time, so I just cut out food. I was just not fueling myself appropriately. I wasn’t giving myself enough calories to be able to properly train. I used to get so hungry that I’d binge. Then when I binged, I’d feel so bad that I was bulimic for a while,” he continued. “Men weren’t meant to talk about their eating disorders back then. Or their feelings at all. It’s only as the years have gone by that it’s become easier to talk about these things.”

Tom is now married to Oscar-winning filmmaker Dustin Lance Black and they share two children. He credits his husband with helping him through his struggles, which still exist today.

“My husband’s been a huge support in that. I think it’s a big thing in the gay world, if I’m honest. Some people have very unrealistic body expectations,” Tom added.