Tom Daley talks disco naps, fake tan disasters and making beauty a more inclusive space

The last time I tried fake tan, I was traumatised…

I’ve tried fake tan a couple of times in the past and it doesn’t go that well for me. There was one time we went on a photo shoot and I got a spray tan beforehand. I was like, ‘oh, I haven’t been away in ages, I’ll do something just to give myself a subtle little boost’. I thought I’d waited long enough and washed it off properly, so I went to the gym. Where I’d been sweating, you could see where it had all come off. And the shoot was in speedos! We carried on – a bit of body makeup and it was fine – but I haven’t used fake tan since, I’m still traumatised haha.

I’ve always had a difficult relationship with my body. There’s no-where to hide in diving…

I’ve always had a really difficult relationship with my body. Especially in the world of sport, there’s no-where to hide in diving. For a long period of time I was always told that I had to lose weight, and get smaller and be skinny, so it was very difficult for me. I had a difficult relationship with food. It’s really ingrained in you, especially from such a young age. It can be quite damaging. I think the sport is now taking steps to go about it in an easier way for people to understand and giving people the proper resources to make changes. But it has been a transition from training every single day for the Olympics, to being able to do my own thing and kind of train when I want. It’s an adjustment to have to get used to the different way of life.

My mum is definitely my beauty hero…

Whenever people ask me who my beauty hero is, I always say my mum. I think she’s so naturally beautiful – but you know, I would say that because she’s my mum – but I love the fact that she’s always doing things that just kind of maximise what she already has. She’s able to be herself, then occasionally put things on to make herself feel special. I think there’s something that’s really cool in that. She would embrace both sides: being herself without anything on, then also being able to get a little bit more glam when we go to do something special.

I still bloody love knitting. I’m currently making a hat for my husband so he doesn’t get cold…

I still bloody love knitting. At the moment I’m working on a couple of hats because my husband is going to New York at the end of this week and I think it might be cold. But, honestly, knitting is my reset button. If I feel overwhelmed, or anxious, just sitting down and having a knit for 5-10 minutes just gets me out of my head. When I’m creating pieces, I like using chunky wool because it allows me to make things quite quickly. Especially now coming into winter and there’s so many things to make. But for crochet, I also love a traditional granny square – like those little blocks that create patchwork.