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Olympic legend Daley Thompson is reportedly in advanced talks with ITV bosses to join the Celebrity Big Brother lineup.
The double Olympic gold-medallist is considered one of Britain’s greatest athletes, and he would no doubt cause a stir with younger celebrities if he entered the house.
Daley joins Love Island’s Chris Hughes and Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd as the first names rumoured to be taking part in CBB’s new series, which kicks off next month.
Sources are claiming that Daley, 66, will have plenty of tales to share with his housemates given his long Olympic career.
A source told The Sun: ‘Daley is notoriously unwoke and likes to be provocative, so it will be interesting to see how he is received by some of the younger housemates.
‘As someone who was at the height of his fame in the Eighties, many of them will barely know who he is – but for a generation of older viewers he’ll be seen as a great signing.’
Olympic legend Daley Thompson, 66, is reportedly in advanced talks with ITV bosses to join the Celebrity Big Brother lineup (picutred last month)
The double Olympic gold winner (pictured in 1984) is considered one of Britain’s greatest athletes , and he would no doubt cause a stir with younger celebrities if he entered the house
MailOnline has contacted representatives for Daley Thompson and Celebrity Big Brother for comment.
No stranger to his outspoken views, Daley courted controversy in the 1980s when he suggested that fellow athlete Carl Lewis was gay, and in 2012 he made a quip about a misspelt tattoo suggesting the person who’d done it ‘must have been Irish’.
After his Olympic success, Daley took a lengthy break from the limelight, but last year he re-emerged by releasing his autobiography, Daley: Olympic Superstar, and a documentary of the same name.
Both offered a glimpse at Daley’s incredible career, especially in the decathlons, which saw him win two golds in the 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and six golds in the Commonwealth Games.
While Daley endured a difficult childhood that included relying on food and clothes bands, his Olympic dream started when he was given his first pair of SL72 Adidas trainers in 1975.
The sportsman became known for his womanising ways, and previously joked that ‘any woman only has to sit on a bed I’ve slept in to get pregnant.’
He also dated Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies in 1970s, and despite their split they’ve remained good friends.
He married his childhood sweetheart Patricia Quinlan, in 1987, and had three children – Rachel, 35, Austin, 33 and Elliot, 30.
Daley won gold at the Olympics in both 1980 and 1984 in the decathlon, and recently returned to the limelight with a documentary and autobiography about his career
Following their split in the late 1990s, Daley moved in with Lisa Clayton, with whom he shares sons Alex, 22, and Aaron, 17, but their on-off relationship ended in 2016.
Daley did recently share that he is found love again with a new partner, but said he ‘doesn’t intend’ to marry again.
He also previously shared the horrific ordeal of being told his father had been brutally murdered on the streets of Streatham, South West London by a jealous husband.
Daley said: ‘My mum told me that he and another man were out with two ladies and one of the ladies’ husbands turned up and shot him.
‘While he was my father he wasn’t really my dad. He didn’t act how I’d consider a dad to, so it didn’t have the effect on me that it would have had he been a good father.
‘All the experiences you have obviously make you the person you are.’
