‘Lucy’s surprised at how good I am!’
He may have suffered the humiliation of falling over twice during a recent performance on
Dancing on Ice but Ryan Thomas has revealed his fiancée Lucy Mecklenburgh still thinks he’s got star quality.
The former Corrie star, 39, exclusively tells Closer that Lucy – who he shares threeyear-old son, Roman, and a daughter Lilah, one, with – is a huge fan of his skating moves.
“She really loves it. She was surprised how good it was, which was nice!” he says.
Ryan and former TOWIE star Lucy, 32, have been together for seven years after meeting on Celebrity Island with Bear
Grylls and currently live in their recently renovated Manchester home.
But Ryan admits the biggest struggle for him at the moment is the fivehour trip from rehearsals in Hertfordshire to Manchester to get home to see his family.
“The hardest thing is travelling, because we're going back and forward a lot. We miss our kids. It's beautiful chaos having the kids around but I love it.”
Ryan's brothers, Waterloo Rd actor Adam and former Love
Island star Scott, who he is very close to, live nearby. He tells
Closer his family and friends make him “wealthy in life”.
“I’ve got a solid group around me, and I'm very, very lucky.
That's good for me personally, it’s what keeps me grounded. And the kids keep you occupied and motivated to get up every day.”
Ryan is also dad to 14-year-old Scarlet with his ex Tina O’Brien. He says his eldest daughter is “really sweet” about him being on the show.
“Scarlet sent me a lovely message saying, ‘Dad, work really hard, you are going to do really well at this.’ And it was probably the nicest message she’s ever sent me, actually. Normally it’s, ‘Dad, can I have money? Dad, can I have this? Dad, can I have that?’ I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, there must be another message coming.’ But
she was just really sweet! She's the reason I'm doing it.”
Ryan found fame playing Jason
Grimshaw in Coronation Street for 16 years between 2000 and 2016. After stints in panto and an appearance in Australian soap
Neighbours, he starred in reality
TV shows including Celebrity
Big Brother, which he won in
2018, Celebrity Masterchef and Celebrity Antiques Road Trip.
But he admits he may dip his toe back in to the acting world this year – and would like to follow in the footsteps of his former Corrie co-star Michelle Keegan, who won global acclaim for her role in Netflix thriller Fool Me Once.
“I lost the bug for acting. I‘ve thought about getting back into it again, it's a string to my bow that I never use. It'd be amazing [to play a villain],” Ryan says.