Olympic swimmer Adam Ramsay-Peaty has opened up about his strained relationship with his family, saying he is willing to reconcile but only under certain conditions.
In an interview published on August 1, the 31-year-old athlete said he intends to mend ties with his estranged family, including his mother Caroline, but emphasized that they must first demonstrate personal growth.
“For me, as a Christian, there has to be forgiveness. It doesn’t mean you have to forget, but forgiveness takes time,” he told The Guardian.
He added, “I’m not saying that it won’t get better but it has to come from a place where I feel like they’ve improved as people, in a sense, and opened that communication up.”
Ramsay-Peaty has avoided discussing the family dispute publicly for the past eight months, but the rift became known after his wedding to Holly Ramsay, daughter of TV chef Gordon Ramsay, in December.
The couple married at Bath Abbey without his parents attending. Shortly after, he announced on Instagram that he had changed his name to “Adam Ramsay Peaty.”
His aunt, Louise Williams, had earlier criticized Holly for excluding Caroline from her hen do, calling it “divisive and hurtful” and suggesting the family was distancing him from his mother.
Addressing the public nature of the dispute, Ramsay-Peaty said, “I care about the relationships that people think I have with my son, and my own family, but that’s my private life.”
He also criticized tabloids for exploiting private lives for advertising, while noting he maintains good relations with some media outlets.
“Will it get better? Probably not.
Will the truth come out one day? Absolutely,” he said.
Earlier this year, Gordon Ramsay described the feud as “upsetting” and said he and his wife Tana had welcomed Ramsay-Peaty into their family.
“It’s all self-inflicted from their side, because we’ve done nothing – none of what you’ve read: no rudeness, no ignorance – we welcomed them,” Gordon Ramsay said in February.
He mentioned efforts to treat the family well, including providing a chauffeur-driven car for the engagement party, and expressed a desire to meet with them in Nottingham to “draw a line in the sand.”
“It was Adam and Holly’s wishes for them not to attend [the wedding] and so we had to respect that,” he added.
In July, Ramsay-Peaty won a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games, an emotional performance that came after a challenging period.
“I’ve got very tough skin that has been built quite aggressively over these last six months,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“I know what my values are, my morals are.
I can look in the mirror and be at peace with myself and the person that I am,” he said.
