Tom Daley has opened up about the inner turmoil he experienced after earning Olympic success at the age of 14.

On 1 June, the champion diver released his new documentary Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds.

Directed by Vaughan Sivell, the film chronicles Daley’s remarkable athletic career, including his beginnings in the diving world and his extensive Olympic journey.

The documentary also takes a candid look at some of the personal struggles he had to deal with behind the scenes, ranging from his coming out announcement to the tragic passing of his father.  

In light of the release of Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds, Daley opened up to Newsweek about some of the topics explored in the film, including his experience with bullying in school.

When asked what it was like to watch back that portion of the film, the 31-year-old talent described it as “very lonely” – adding that no one in his life at the time understood what he was going through.

“I had my best friends– Sophie, who is still my best friend today – who I never spoke to about diving. She’s there to be, like, ‘Yay! That was great!.’ But she doesn’t have any interest in knowing what’s going on within it,” he explained to the news outlet.

“Well, maybe she does have an interest. But she doesn’t see me just as a diver. She’s my best friend. So I think that’s something that’s really quite nice to have, and I’m grateful for her.

“But no one really understood what it was like to be that young when I was going away on team competitions because they were all so much older than I was at the time.”

When addressing the bullying he faced, Daley said he “almost felt guilty” about being picked on, adding that he didn’t want to “bother anyone” with how he was feeling.

“I’m really grateful and really lucky to be in the position that I’m in, yet I’m having this really tough time. It was like being pulled from one side to the other of like, ‘Yay, great. I’m succeeding in this.’ But then, ‘Oh no, I’m being pulled this way,’” he continued.

“It was quite difficult to have that moment where I was just like, ‘You know what, I feel very alone. I don’t really know what to do.’ That’s part of the reason why I think I kept finding myself putting on this other personality to be able to hide from that bit of me that was really struggling.”

Toward the end of his statement, Daley explained that he didn’t want to confront his inner challenges – like being gay, school bullying, or his dad’s terminal illness – because he didn’t “want to come across as the person who felt sorry for themselves.”

“Because I felt so grateful and lucky to be in the position I was, and I didn’t ever feel like I was in a position to ever complain about that,” he added.

The Made With Love founder’s recent interview comes a few days after he shed some light on his 19-year age gap with husband Dustin Lance Black.

“As we get older, I think we both align very well on what we want to achieve. We’re both really big dreamers. I think that was the biggest thing for us, that we’re both so supportive of each other,” Daley told Us Weekly.

“We don’t limit the other person’s dreams. We really make each other feel like we can achieve whatever we set our minds to.”

You can watch Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds here