Grandparents of Tom Daley were ‘confused’ by his coming out but said they will ‘always be here for him’
Tom Daley’s grandparents have said that despite being a little surprised by his decision to come out, they fully support him, and always will.
In a YouTube broadcast, the 19-year-old London 2012 bronze medallist said: “In spring this year my life changed massively when I met someone, and they make me feel so happy, so safe and everything just feels great. .. that someone is a guy”.
While a vast majority of messages about Tom Daley on social media were positive, including messages of support from celebrities and sports people, a small minority did use the opportunity to air homophobic views, and slurs.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Daley’s grandparents said they were a bit “confused” by his decision to publicly come out, but said they would always support him.
“We asked him if he was absolutely sure. He’s our first grandson from our son who died,” Daley’s grandparents said.
“We have always been supportive of him and we always will. We’re not old-fashioned, in fact we’re quite liberal. But I do think he’s too young to be making this sort of decision… But we hugged him, we thanked him for coming to see us, and we’ll be seeing him over Christmas. We’ll always be here for Tom.”
Mr Andrew said: “We do need to change the attitude so that we can then change the culture.”
