SITTING in the driver’s seat of his Maserati, Ryan Thomas chuckles as he realises he’s got a pair of toddler’s pants stuffed in his jeans pocket.
“That’s dad life,” smiles the Coronation Street star, who has two children with his fiancée, former The Only Way Is Essex star Lucy Mecklenburgh – recently-potty-trained Lilah, three, and son Roman, five.
“When Lilah handed me a pair of pants today, it reminded me of when I was in a club and found a dummy in my pocket. I thought, ‘What’s my life come to?!’”
Of course, this Manchester-born family man wouldn’t have it any other way.
Within minutes of our chat, it’s clear that after playing Jason Grimshaw in Corrie for 16 years, and then Rafael Humphreys in Neighbours in 2018, before winning Celebrity Big Brother the same year, and dazzling on last year’s Dancing On Ice, fatherhood is Ryan’s most celebrated role.
Family man
“When I sit around the table with all my children and Luce, I think, ‘I made this’. It’s those moments when I really appreciate what I’ve got,” he says.
Ryan also shares 16-year-old Scarlett, his actress daughter, with his ex, fellow Corrie star Tina O’Brien. But don’t expect a fourth addition to his brood anytime soon.
“Never, never, ever, ever, ever, ever! I’ve got three beautiful children. I don’t need any more, thank you very much!” he laughs.
“It’s a full-time responsibility and really hard work for us parents, though it is the most rewarding job in the world.”
He dismisses the term “blended family” by explaining: “We’re just a solid family, and that’s how it will always be.”
The family relocated to Manchester in March, after seven years in Essex, largely to be closer to Scarlett, who lives up north with her mum.
“When I was in Essex, Scarlett was coming down frequently – she was there every weekend, school holidays – and then it wasn’t happening as much.
“You know when they get to an age when their friends are more important than parents? I was really missing the day-to-day stuff, so I was like, ‘We need to go home’.”
Ryan, 41, shares his “biggest worry” as a parent is his teen daughter: “I can’t visibly see her, [I don’t] wake up with her every morning or know what she’s doing,” he says, joking he’ll be poised when boyfriends inevitably come calling.
Biggest worry
“Have you ever seen Bad Boys II when Will Smith and Martin Lawrence come to the door and the boy asks to take the daughter out on a date? That’s what will happen.
“It’ll be me and my brothers standing there! It’s always going to be difficult when your babies leave the nest, because they’re always your babies. It doesn’t matter how old they are.”
Scarlett was 14 when she landed her first major screen role, playing Izzy Charles in BBC drama Waterloo Road alongside her uncle, ex Emmerdale star Adam, 36.
There are now whispers she will bank “at least” £2million by her 18th birthday from lucrative TV and social media work.
“I’m here for it! This is the best news I’ve ever heard!” roars Ryan, before shutting down claims that Scarlett is a “nepo baby”, AKA a child who’s had a leg up into their famous parents’ industry.
“Everyone thinks she gets a lift up from family, getting on Waterloo Road.
“But she worked damn hard to get that job, and people need to recognise that she’s a talented girl – she’s up against other people and she’s not getting a free ride.
Everyone thinks she gets a lift up from family… she worked damn hard
Ryan Thomas on daughter Scarlett
“She has to go through the same process as everyone else – it was between her and somebody else. It wasn’t like, ‘This is a Thomas, she’s going to get this job’.”
Scarlett often features in the family’s hilarious YouTube and TikTok videos, alongside Ryan’s twin brothers Adam and Love Island star, Scott, and their families.
More than 903k fans follow the @Thethomasfam__ TikTok account, which has 14.8 million likes – popularity that has prompted some to label them the UK’s answer to the Kardashians.
“That’s what everyone’s screaming out for. Everything I see on socials, is like, ‘Give these guys a reality TV show’,” says Ryan, insisting that wasn’t the goal when they “fell” into TikTok last autumn.
But now there are “conversations being had with TV production companies”.
He says: “For me and my brothers, it’s become a bit of a full-time job. We’ve probably done every show in the country, but now I get stopped on the street for being a TikToker.
“We’re so lucky, it’s a real privilege to be able to work with your family and have fun.”
How does he feel about the tiniest Thomases having public profiles, specifically Scarlett who’s built a robust 179k following, but has had to deal with trolling since joining the platform?
“All the family have grown up in the public eye. Scarlett’s an actress, so this seems very much aligned to where she’s going.
“Plus, we never have the kids doing things they don’t want to do,” insists Ryan.
And how about the exposure Scarlett is getting online?
“It can be difficult being a 16 year old, but that’s what it’s like for most teenagers, right?
“They’re all looking at examples of how they’re supposed to be, what they do and how they dress. In the forefront of their vision is Instagram and TikTok.
“It’s frightening, but as long as you’ve got a loving family around you with a solid foundation, I think you can get through it.”
‘Mad time of life’
That said, he is all in favour of a ban on children using social media until they turn 16 – the age Scarlett set up her accounts.
“We all can be addicted to social media at some point, even in our adulthood, so to protect our kids, I think that’s a great idea.”
In 2021, Ryan announced he was turning his back on acting, after struggling to deal with being rejected for roles and experiencing social media trolling.
However, in March this year – the same month he and Adam launched their ITV game show 99 To Beat – Ryan was back on the Corrie cobbles filming the exit story line of his on-screen mum Eileen Grimshaw, played by Sue Cleaver.
He returned to screens two weeks ago in a storyline that saw Eileen quit the cobbles to run a bar in Thailand with her oldest son.
“When I was in Corrie, it was electric,” says Ryan. “There were only four TV channels when I started, so it was instant fame, a mad time of life.
“To revisit that world and all the crew and cast and going back into the make-up room with all the same make-up girls was bloody magical.”
While he has no desire to return full-time to Corrie, did picking up his soap scripts rekindle a passion for acting?
“I did get a bit of a bug for it again, and you never know what’s around the corner,” he replies, noting that he no longer cares about public opinion.
“I’m in my own world. I’ve got my own family now. I’m like, ‘Whatever’. I just presented a bloody game show and I don’t even know how to present.
I back myself as a dad, and I think that’s because of the mistakes my dad made. I learned from them
Ryan Thomas
“Adam and I were up for two [awards] at the National TV Awards – for Best Presenter and Best Game Show – and I’m like, ‘How did this happen?’ We don’t even know how to do it, but we’re giving it a go!”
Full of infectious positive energy, Ryan isn’t afraid to bare his soul, either, particularly as talk turns to his father, ’70s soul singer Dougie James, who died unexpectedly, aged 72, in November 2020.
“I haven’t talked about my dad for such a long time. God, I miss him every day.”
Ryan pauses for a few seconds, overcome with emotion.
“I think about him all the time. I’ve even got his ashes in my living room and he watches me every night.
“I haven’t got to the point where I’ve been able to bury him, because I can’t bring myself to not have him with me.
“I’ve asked the boys and they said they’re OK with me having him there.”
Ryan was 12 and his twin brothers six when his dad – lead singer of Dougie James And The Soul Train, who once toured with The Jackson 5 – left the family, severing contact for seven years.
During those years of abandonment, Father’s Day must have been really tough?
“Not Father’s Day, but in general,” says Ryan. “I was waiting for him to come back every day. I used to listen to a cassette [of him singing] in bed every night.
I was waiting for him to come back every day
Ryan Thomas
“It was very, very tough, but I wouldn’t change any of it. It’s made me who I am and made me a better father – stronger, more stable, responsible, present.
“I back myself as a dad, and I think that’s because of the mistakes my dad made. I learned from them.”
Dougie’s absence inadvertently gave Ryan a premature and unlikely grounding in fatherhood, as he stepped up to help mum Gail raise Adam and Scott, eventually financially supporting the family once he hit the big time in Corrie.
“Oh, I was their father, yeah,” he says. “They are my kids. I know it sounds weird, but I brought them up. I did everything for them – I was that father for them, the man about the house. I’m obsessed with my brothers.
“They look at me like a brother, but I look at them like my children, [no] different from the way I look at my own kids, because they’re just as important, just in a different way.”
Travelling to India in 2019 with his dad and brothers to film their ITV series Absolutely India: Mancs In Mumbai, where they unearthed their family’s Indian roots, set a benchmark for future TV projects.
Ryan says: “I’d love to do another project like that, where people get insight into us, but they also get insight into a culture, history, family and brotherhood.
“I would love to do a road trip with them. When we were kids, my nana drove us across Florida in a big red van and I remember it so vividly. I’d love to do that again, a big road trip with all the family.”
It was on another adventure, this time on a remote island in the Pacific in 2017, that Ryan met his wife, fitness and health entrepreneur Lucy, 33, while filming Channel 4’s Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls.
I absolutely love my time with Lucy. I fancy her and I still get that feeling inside my tummy
Ryan Thomas
The couple got engaged in the summer of 2019, shortly before Lucy realised she was pregnant with Roman.
Six years on, they are no closer to setting a wedding date.
“We are having the conversations and it will happen, but when? We’re always renovating and moving.
“When that stops and we stop enjoying ourselves, I think it will happen,” says Ryan – who celebrated his 40th birthday last June in Portugal with 80 of their nearest and dearest, an occasion that felt “like a bit of a wedding”.
He and Lucy, who found fame on Towie in 2010, are planning a child-free holiday to Ibiza and have regular Thursday date nights.
“On our last date, we just went out for dinner. It’s important to have a little time for yourselves amongst all the hustle and bustle. I absolutely love my time with Lucy. I fancy her and I still get that feeling inside my tummy.
“I absolutely adore her and love having time with her on my own. It’s hard sometimes, though, because she never switches off, it’s always just work or kids. So if I don’t plan these date nights, then…”
He doesn’t get a look in?
“It’s all for me!” laughs Ryan. “I need her all to myself!”
Father’s Day, though, is entirely about family time.
“As long as I’m sitting around the table with my family, that’s all that matters to me.
“And this year, I get to show off my two children on the front of Fabulous magazine. How cool is that?!”
- Follow Ryan on Instagram @RyanThomas84.
