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Tom Daley shares his advice for a happy marriage

The athlete has been married to Dustin Lance Black since 2017

Saman Javed
Thursday 22 September 2022 15:34 BST
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Tom Daley makes knitted pouch to keep Olympic gold medal safe

Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley has shared his advice for a lasting happy marriage.

Daley has been married to screenwriter Dustin Lance Black since 2017, and the couple have a four-year-old son named Robbie.

In a new interview with Cosmopolitan, Daley said he and Black have implemented a ritual into their bedtime routine which allows them to check-in with each other every day.

“When we get to bed, we always ask each other what our best and worst part of the day was,” Daley explained.

“It’s a good opportunity to share something nice, but then also share something that [wasn’t].

“It doesn’t necessarily have to mean I’m pissed off about him, it could be anything, but just being able to create that conversation.”

The interview follows the release of the athlete’s recent BBC documentary, Tom Daley: Illegal To Be Me, which aired last month.

Daley, who is one of the most prominent gay athletes in the UK, said his husband inspired him to advocate for LGBT+ rights.

“I was very ignorant to queer history before I met Lance. I didn’t really know anything. I just knew who I was,” Daley said.

“I’ve done a lot of learning and understanding what pride is, why it’s important that we do it, the people that came before us and how much further we have to go versus where we were in only very recent history.”

Daley also shared some insight into his family life and revealed that Robbie often gets tired of his love for knitting, telling his father: “No more knitting Papa.”

Daley said Robbie and Black are his “top priority”, and that fatherhood had given him a “new sense of purpose and perspective”.

“When you become a parent, you realise how much your parents did for you and how much they sacrificed,” Daley said.

“Then you realise all the lessons they taught you and how you can then adapt them for your kids. I would love to have the same relationship that I had with my dad with Robbie.”

The full Tom Daley interview can be read in the October/November issue of Cosmopolitan UK, on sale now.

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