LOS ANGELES — In the cover story for OUT magazine’s annual “Love Issue” Olympic diver Tom Daley and Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Dustin Lance Black open up about their relationship and recent engagement. On their initial encounter, Daley recalls, “We spoke every day, nonstop. My phone would buzz, and we’d just be in constant communication, it was kind of insane, like there was nothing else around me.” And the diver revealed that he and Black first talked about marriage shortly after meeting. “Quite honestly, we talked about marriage within the first two weeks after seeing each other the first time in LA,” he said. “That was the weird thing: that it came up in conversation so many times. I always knew it was going to happen at some point.”
Select excerpts from Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black’s cover story include:
Black on the first night they met:
“Tom had just won an award at some Nickelodeon TV show, and they were planning to celebrate, and I said, ‘I’ve got to go home; I have a script to write.’ And Tom took my phone, and he typed his number in with a winky face. At which point I felt I had confirmation that he was a gay. I’ve never in my life heard of a straight man putting his number in another man’s phone with a winky face.”
Daley on their first date:
“…we literally spent three or four hours talking about the crap that we’d been through. His brother had only just passed away, and my dad had died in 2011, and we talked about his mum and her struggles with her illnesses – sadly, she’s no longer with us – and we just really connected. It was one of the first time that I felt, Oh my God, this isn’t just a thing where I am attracted to someone. This is someone that I’ve connected with on a whole new level. It was new for me, and that was when I thought, Shit, I’m in trouble here.”
Black on their first date:
“Truly, it was hours and hours of sharing and talking about things that really mattered to us. Pardon the pun, but we dove right in. I remember the moment clearly when I though, Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. Because not only is he unbelievably attractive to me, and that goes beyond just how he looks, but he gets me. He understood my competitive spirit. We both had been to the top of our fields – he’d been world champion, I had an Oscar – and neither of us felt we were done”
Daley on making it official:
“We spoke every day, non-stop. My phone would buzz, and we’d just be in constant communication, it was kind of insane, like there was nothing else around me. We’d met in March, and it was about eight weeks later that we saw each other again, for my 19th birthday party. It was all a bit of a blur, because I had just flown in, Lance had just flown in, we were jet-lagged, and then we went to the party. But then the next day, we went on our first real date. That was the night he said, ‘Tom will you be my boyfriend?’ when we were drunk in the hotel, and then he said, ‘Actually, you don’t have to answer that.’ When I woke up the next morning, I turned to him and said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean, ‘Yes’?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.’”
Black on the progressive shift in the LGBT landscape:
“I can’t imagine what it’s like today to discover who you are, and to start to fall in love, and your first thought is not, I could be imprisoned or be forced to undergo electro-shock therapy, but you start thinking about your wedding cake, and who you’re going to invite to the ceremony. It’s a huge change in LGBT culture, and it’s got to be lifesaving.”
Black on building their lives together:
“We were so busy making all these plans – we both wanted to have children; we both wanted to build a home of our own someday. I draw, so I was sketching little plans for houses on cliffs overlooking oceans, while Tom watched over my shoulder – it was a very grown-up version of playing house. Marriage is the foundation to all of these other big plans we have. So we knew we were going to get engaged – it was just a matter of when, and who does it.”
Daley on their engagement:
“I had the ring box in my underwear, and when he came out of the bathroom, I just went down on my knee and proposed. Then he ran off to the bathroom to get his rings, and he had this whole speech prepared, but he’s a writer so his was quite extravagant. But looking back, all I can remember is being completely overwhelmed, like, Oh my God, we’re now engaged. Who do we have to call? So I called my mom, and he called his stepdad.”
Read the full Daley/Black interview now at: http://www.out.com/love-issue/2016/1/05/dlb-td-forever
