Tom Daley now – new life in LA after ‘worst months of life’ with husband Dustin Lance Black
Paris Olympics star Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black have made a fresh start for themselves in LA after a bar fight led to one of the most painful ordeals of their married life
Plymouth-born Olympics icon Tom Daley – who will return to the diving pool today – now lives in sunny California with husband of seven years Dustin Lance Black, with the couple relocating following a bar fight that reportedly left them £600,000 out of pocket.
The 30-year-old diving champ, who was honoured as Team GB’s Flagbearer at this year’s Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, has previously spoken out about the turmoil his family endured after Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin was accused of assaulting BBC presenter Teddy Edwardes at a Soho bar in August 2022.
Teddy took Dustin to court in 2023, and the upset that ensued prompted the husbands to make a fresh start in LA with their two children. Here, the Mirror looks at Gold medallist Tom’s new life across the pond, including his hubby’s fiery feud with Sam Smith…
CCTV played at Westminster Magistrates’ Court showed the pair having a heated exchange at the bar while Tom and Teddy’s ex, Love Island star Amber Gill, looked on in shock. Teddy claimed Dustin had grabbed her wrist, but District Judge Louisa Ciecióra slammed inconsistencies in her evidence, with the footage showing her hitting Dustin in the back of the head as he walked away from her and the case was thrown out of court.
“Ms Edwardes said she didn’t see a difference between her drink being spilt and Mr Black grabbing her wrist, that the outcome is the same,” said the judge. “But there is a difference. The charge was brought on Mr Black having grabbed her wrist. Grabbing a glass does not amount to an assault.”
Dustin was left out of pocket by a reported £600,000 and in an interview with the Guardian in February, said: “This is no longer, you know, do I like or dislike a place? I think that the crown and the Government owe me an apology… I think they also owe me a lot of money.”
In an open letter to fans, Tom called his other half’s ordeal ‘some of the worst months of our lives’, saying: “This unjust course of action has been of course, hardest and most damaging for Lance, whose resilience astonishes me. You continue to be the best Dad to our two children and your support for my return to diving has been amazing.”
The couple moved to Los Angeles as a result, with their children Robbie, six and Phoenix, one. They first met at a mutual friend’s dinner in LA and they married in May 2017 at Bovey Castle in Devon.
“It was a real love-at-first-sight thing,” Tom told the Observer. “The first night, I took him to meet my friends and said: ‘This is my boyfriend’. The next night we went on our first date. The next night he asked me to be his boyfriend. The night after that, after a couple of lychee martinis, he told me he loved me.”
Tom and Dustin recently posted a video on their YouTube channel showing Robbie joining them on a hike in the Hollywood Hills, with Tom pushing Phoenix’s pram. Dustin, who first moved to California when he was 13, said he was ‘very, very proud’ of his son for being named ‘the kindest child in the grade’.
While the couple’s connection was instant, they faced tough times too. When Sam Smith won an Oscar for Best Original Son in 2016 and mistakenly said they believed no openly gay man had won an Oscar, Dustin hit back. “Hey @SamSmithWorld,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing the footage of him winning his Oscar seven years before. “If you have no idea who I am, it may be time to stop texting my fiancé.”
“Our relationship is far from perfect,” Tom told Attitude Magazine ‘s podcast. “We have really tough times and struggles.” After two years away from the sport, Tom will become the first British diver to compete in five successive Olympic Games and has a new partner, 24-year-old Noah Williams, with his former gold medal colleague Matty facing spinal surgery. He is the first Team GB diver to be selected to be Flagbearer in the Olympic opening ceremony.
Olympics: Paris 2024 coverage continues today (July 29) on BBC One from 1:45 pm onwards.
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