When Freddie Woodward flipped off the diving board at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he’d officially reached the pinnacle of his career.
An ‘enthusiastic’ kid, Woodward had competed in the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and the British Championships by the age of 20.
He achieved both bronze and silver medals, and trained with the likes of Tom Daley and Jack Laugher.
But little did his adoring spectators know, he was harbouring a dark secret.
Since he was a young teenager, Woodward, from Sheffield and now 30, had been battling an addiction to pornography.
At the height of his career, around the time he represented Team GB in the Rio Olympics, he was accessing adult sites up to 10 times a day.
The now retired diver also admitted to sending nude pictures to strangers as part of his ‘thrill seeking’ desire.
The images were eventually leaked on the internet, resulting in the breakup of his then relationship.
Freddie Woodward, now 30, overcame his addiction by going cold turkey
By the age of 20 the athlete had won bronze and silver medals, and competed in the Olympics
‘If I’d had a bad training session, it [porn] was always the thing I could turn to,’ he told the BBC.
Woodward said he first discovered porn aged 11, and within a year he was accessing what he described as ‘hardcore’ sites.
‘I’m the first generation to have had access to high-speed internet porn,’ he said.
‘I realised 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.’
Woodward is far from alone. Some 82 per cent of men say they watch porn regularly, according to polls, with a third admitting to exposure before the age of 15.
The habit has also been rising among women in recent years, with around half of UK women polled by YouGov saying they’ve watched adult content at some point.
Meanwhile, addiction centres specialising in the problem say they’ve seen a recent surge in demand.
According to UKAT – which runs addiction treatment centres – the number of people they treat for problematic porn use has risen ‘significantly’ in recent years.
They now receive multiple enquiries for porn use daily while prior to 2020, it was one or two a week.
Experts say watching pornography can ‘desensitise’ genitals, leading to sexual dysfunction
Freddie Woodward said he carried around his addiction problem like a ‘ball of shame’
UKAT estimate that around 1.8 million Britons are watching porn daily, some several times a day.
Freddie Woodward said, despite the habit ruining his romantic relationships and his mental health, he ‘couldn’t stop’.
Instead, he carried the addiction around like a ‘ball of shame’.
Just two years after coming 19th at the Rio Olympics – and narrowly missing out on the semi final – he retired from the sport, aged 23.
It would be another four years before he overcame his addiction.
He did so by changing his mindset from being someone trying to quit porn to ‘someone who doesn’t watch porn’.
Today, he travels around the globe making social media videos about food and culture with his girlfriend, Chika Izumi, a former professional swimmer, who he met in 2019.
Izumi, 33, has supported Woodward in speaking openly about his experience with porn addiction.
‘I’m so proud of him,’ she said. ‘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.’
Experts have long linked pornography addiction to physical health problems, including erectile dysfunction in men.
Speaking to the Mail last year, Dr Sophie Dix, head of medical affairs for pharmacy MedExpress, said: ‘We are seeing more evidence linking increased porn consumption to erectile dysfunction and desensitisation, diminishing sexual satisfaction and intimate relationships.’
She urged addicted men to use website blockers to stop porn being so readily available and to remove bookmarks they might have for favourite porn websites.
She added getting more exercise or socialising more can help to break the relationship with porn. She added: ‘The number of Brits consuming porn in public…suggests it is moving beyond casual pleasure and entertainment into dependency.’
