Tom Daley speaks out about his father’s death as he admits he ‘didn’t know who to turn to’

Olympian Tom Daley has admitted that he “didn’t know who to turn to” when his dad died.

Tom Daley “didn’t know who to turn to” when his dad died.

The 31-year-old Olympian lost his father, Robert, to a brain tumour more than a decade ago, but he is sure that his dad is still “supporting” him with everything as he goes on in his life and career.

He told People: “When he was gone from my life, I didn’t really know who to turn to or who to talk to about lots of things.

“There wasn’t really anyone that would bring it out of me, because my dad was always someone who kind of knew exactly what I was thinking and how I was feeling and knew how to fix it.

“He supports me all the way, and if I didn’t have his support system, I wouldn’t be here now ‘cause I wouldn’t want to carry on.”

Tom has sons Robbie, six, as well as two-year-old Phoenix with his husband Dustin Lance Black, and recently admitted that losing his dad was one of the “most difficult” things he has ever had to go through but still takes inspiration from his dad when it comes to his parenting style.

He said: “I model lots of my parenting and lots of the things that I do every day around what I learned from my dad. He my biggest cheerleader. He was there for every training session, every competition, and he was a huge part of my life, day in, day out.

“Losing him was one of the most difficult things that I ever had to deal with.”

Yet I was dealing with that in a very public way in the U.K. Looking back on all of that footage was quite challenging to watch because I felt really sorry for the younger Tom that I kind of was just carrying on and putting on a brave face, and I didn’t ever want to bother anyone with how I was feeling because I didn’t want to ever make anyone else feel uncomfortable.”

Tom has discussed his life and career at length in the new documentary, Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds’ but admitted that he initially had reservations about speaking about such personal things on camera.

He said: “I wasn’t sure about doing it initially. You know what? This is something that I would love to be able to then show my kids in the future and be able to be like, ‘Look, this is what Papa did. This is the thing that Papa was doing day in, day out’ And the things that I did, and be able to get to know the relationship I had with my dad and all of that stuff.”