I’m always on the lookout for the next Mrs Thompson

Daley had three chilren – Rachel, 30, Austin, 28 and Elliot, 26 – with first wife Patricia Quinlan before meeting Lisa Clayton in the late 1990s.

Their on-off relationship ended two years ago and they share custody of sons Alex, now 16, and Aaron, 11.

He said: “My kids keep me grounded, absolutely.

“The medals and world records count for nothing in my house – I still have to do the washing up.

“Most of my dreams now concern my family and making sure the kids have got their sense of humour and their fingers and toes and stuff.

“I’ve told them nothing about my career.

“I never mention it and I don’t have pictures in my house.

“I gave all my medals away to my training partners. They worked as hard as I did – I just happened to be a bit better than them.

“My two youngest have never seen my medals. I’m going to get them back and at least show my boys because they don’t know what they look like.”

Daley was born in Notting Hill, West London, to a Nigerian father and Scottish mother.

His dad was shot dead when Daley was just 11 – but the troubled youngster threw himself in to athletics.

He recalled: “At first I wanted to be a footballer but I didn’t think I’d be better than Pele and I had to be the best at something.

“I realised I was good at sport on my first sports day. I just won everything. When I was 14 or 15 I told my mum Lydia I wanted to be an athlete. “She said it was much better to stay at school and do A Levels and all that kind of stuff. “I said, ‘OK, but I’m still going to do sports too’.” Daley was a sprinter until his coach suggested he tried the decathlon – where