Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black announce the birth of their son

Robert Ray was born on 27 June.

Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have announced the birth of their son, Robert Ray, in The Times. The announcement reads: “BLACK-DALEY On 27th June 2018 to Thomas Robert Daley and Dustin Lance Black, a son, Robert Ray.”

Robert has been named after Tom’s father who died of cancer in 2011.

The pair announced the news that they were expecting a child on Valentine’s Day in an adorable post which saw them holding up a baby scan. However, they were immediately hit with a ton of homophobic abuse, including a sickening piece by Richard Littlejohn in which he starts by saying someone should “pass [him] the sick bag.”

Responding to all of the abuse, Dustin was incredibly calm. “My reaction to others’ hate, bigotry and misinformation will not include anger or hate,” he wrote, alongside a throwback picture of himself and Tom on honeymoon in Hawaii last year.

“For me, the path forward is lit with curiosity, listening, correcting the record when possible, and as best I can, leading with an example of strength and love.”

Related: Tom Daley hits back after Katie Hopkins mocks his baby announcement

In an interview with The Times, Tom was also calm in his response. “We have an egg donor and a surrogate and we feel very lucky,” he said.

“I am able to live my life without worrying what people think. People say whatever they say. I get tons [of abuse] every day, but at the end of the day, I’m married with a kid on the way and I don’t care what anyone says.

“I don’t care if they don’t like it. It took me a long time to get to that place but I am here. I think, ‘Whatever’.”

And speaking to Nick Robinson on The Andrew Marr Show, Tom also revealed that becoming a father made him speak out over the Commonwealth’s anti-LGBTQ laws.

“You want your child to grow up having an equal opportunity as everyone else that is born, whether they’re gay, straight, male, female, whatever religion you are, whatever ethnicity you are,” he said.

“I think that everyone should have the equal opportunity to do the best you can.”