Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black have opened up about their decision to have their first child through surrogacy.
The Olympic diver, 23, and his partner said they had long debated how they’d build their family, but felt surrogacy suited them best due to the biological connection.
“Both of us have lost our family members, parents at an early age,” said Dustin on Fearne Cotton’s ‘Happy Place’ podcast. “There was something for both of us where we felt deeply that we’d like to complete that connection first when creating our family, and to have a biological connection to our past, to bring that into our present and let that grow into the future. At least at first, for the first couple!”
Daley said he had no idea how surrogacy worked and admitted to feeling blown away after their first meeting - “We’ve never been so sure about anything in our whole entire lives.”
Opening up about the relationship with their surrogate, the couple said they love her and feel incredibly grateful. After their son is born, they intend to ensure she is still involved in their son’s life as he grows up.
“We’ve always said we’d be very open and honest with our child,” added Daley. “I’ve been writing down a diary of every single step that we’ve gone through so we can explain it to our child.”
One question the couple have been frustrated about being asked is who the biological father of their baby is. The couple are “adamant” about not knowing, or ever wanting to know, because they are both the child’s parents.
Daley added: “We’ll do our absolute best to try and raise our child the way our parents raised us. To be surrounded by love is the most important thing.”
The couple announced they were expecting their first child together on 14 February by sharing a photo of a baby scan on Instagram.
The 23-year-old married Black in May 2017 in a fairytale ceremony in front of 120 close friends and relatives at Bovey Castle in Devon. They first got together in 2013, with the diver coming out publicly in a YouTube video in the months that followed.
In the clip he told fans that his “whole world changed” when he fell in love with a man.
Listen to the full interview on Fearne Cotton’s ‘Happy Place’ podcast on iTunes.