Entertainment News3 min(s) read
Published 15:02 06 Aug 2026 GMT
A former Olympic athlete has spoken out about his porn addiction, how he recovered, and what he is doing to help young men going through a similar thing.
Freddie Woodward, 30, a former Team GB diver who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics has revealed that in the height of his addiction he used porn websites up to 10 times a day.
The athlete, who began diving aged seven, claims that his problems began when he started secondary school and was spending 20 hours a week training in the pool and gym.
Explaining how he fell into the harmful habit to the BBC, Woodward said: "I'm the first generation to have had access to high-speed internet porn.
"I realized I had a problem when it came to homework and exams, like GCSEs and A Levels. Every time I sat down to revise, all I wanted to do was open those sites."
A few years later, aged 20, the young star had won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, was a Junior European silver medallist, and represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games. However, as his career peaked, so did his use of porn.
Recalling his darkest moments, he said: "If I'd had a bad training session, it was always the thing I could turn to."
Taking it one step further, he even began sharing nude pictures and videos of himself with strangers on social media. Woodward said he did so because it gave him “more of a thrill”.
He admitted: "I was doing something clearly irresponsible, but I didn't care."
Sadly, the images were eventually leaked online, and it ended his relationship after his girlfriend at the time found out and confronted him about it.
Tragically, Woodward said: "I was so embarrassed and crushed. I just didn't know how to deal with it.
"The worst part was, I still couldn't quit porn. I couldn't stop."
Understandably, his addiction hugely impacted his mental health, and he tried for six years to overcome it with little luck. Eventually, what worked was altering his mindset from being someone trying to quit porn to "someone who doesn't watch porn".
However, after he spoke out, some social media users made an outrageous claim about why he'd chosen to go public.
One wrote: "I always feel like confessing this to the press is a fetish in of itself," while another added: "I never see any articles about them getting addicted to Runescape or Crusader Kings. Just that they love j*rking it sooo much."
Someone else claimed: "It’s just a different form of exhibitionism, isn’t it. The dynamic is exactly the same."
In the years since his retirement from professional sport, the former bronze medal winner makes a living making social media videos about food and culture while travelling with his girlfriend, Chika Izumi, a former artistic swimmer on Japan's national team.
According to Izumi, Woodward was very open about his struggles with porn since the beginning of their relationship, and she is very proud of how far he has come in his recovery.
She said: "I'm so proud of him, honestly - and I'm so glad he did it.
"I know he's going to help so many boys and men. I can't believe how brave he is, to talk to the world."
