Tom Daley had a key to a classroom to escape brutal school bullying
Some pupils hurled "scissors" at the now-retired Olympic springboard and 10-metre platform diver when he went to school in Plymouth, England, and the torment got "so bad", a teacher gave Tom, 31, a key to their classroom so he could "sit there at lunch time".
29 May 2025
He is quoted by the UK magazine Closer as saying: "I would have things thrown at me - scissors, for example.
"It got so bad that one of the teachers gave me a key to their classroom so that I could sit in there at lunch time."
Even though the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist appreciated the help and support from the teacher, he eventually felt "shut in" and was missing out on enjoying his school life.
Tom, 31, added: "It was good for a while, but then you feel like you're 'shut in', which is not how you want to spend your life."
The Team GB alumnus is releasing a new Discovery+ documentary called 'Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds' - a reference to the time it takes for a diver to take off from the 10-metre platform and plunge head-first into the water - on June 1.
The programme will see Tom look back at the things he has battled in his life, such as being bullied at school, the loss of his dad Robert, who died from a brain tumor at the age of 40 in 2011, and coming out as gay in a YouTube video in 2013, to become a successful athlete.
Speaking about what it was like to see the worth of footage that Robert captured of Tom as a child, he said: "It was wild. Lots of it I'd never seen before and didn't know existed.
"I got to relive all of the trauma I went through, but also all of the amazing things that came because of that.
"I lost my dad when I was 17, and seeing and hearing some of the footage of him really moved me."
Tom, who is married 50-year-old film director and LGBT rights activist Dustin Lance Black in 2017 and has children Robert 'Robbie', seven, and Phoenix, 14 months with him, said his mum Debbie has been "a rock" through tough times.
He said: "My mum was always there throughout everything. She kept the family running so my dad and I could travel and do all that stuff.
"She's been a rock throughout all of this."
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