ITV Dancing On Ice’s Ryan Thomas’ love life – co-star romance, long-distance fling and settling down

Dancing On Ice star Ryan Thomas made his name as Jason Grimshaw in long-running ITV soap Coronation Street.

The 39-year-old is competing against other British household names on the winter dancing competition, having teamed up with professional skate partner Amani Fancy. After joining Corrie at the tender age of 16, Ryan’s life has played out in front of the media – and naturally his love life has hit the front pages a few times.

Now settled with fiancée, ex-TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh, we look back at the ups and downs of the dad-of-three’s romances over the years before he found The One.

Tina O’Brien and Ryan’s bitter feud

Ryan met co-star Tina O’Brien on the set of Corrie, where she played Sarah Platt. The relationship started in 2003, just months after Tina had split from Bruno Langley – who played Ryan’s on-screen brother Todd Grimshaw.

Their daughter Scarlett was born in 2008, but the pair broke up a year later. Tina said at the time that Ryan had told her she “didn’t do it for him anymore”. In an interview with new! magazine at the time, heartbroken Tina revealed: “He said he didn’t love me any more. He said I didn’t do it for him any more. Those were his words. He said he didn’t want the responsibility of a relationship with me.” The couple have had some well-publicised spats since their bitter split, with both parties publicly criticising the other.

Long-distance with Lana

Ryan went on to have a fleeting roance with Lana Martin, who he met on a night out in Manchester in 2016. The pair were in a long-distance relationship from February of that year year, but broke up after seven months, but the travel proved too much to keep things going, with Ryan living in London at the time, and Lana living in Edinburgh.

Speaking to The Sun at the time, a source said: “Ryan and Lana really tried hard to find time for each other, but they both lead busy lives and became more and more distanced from each other – literally. It’s a shame but it’s totally amicable. Lana was there to help him adjust to life after Corrie. He’ll always be grateful for that.”

Meck-ing an honest man of him

Ryan finally seems settled with TOWIE’s Lucy Mecklenburgh – after overcoming a few bumps in the road along the way. The couple appeared together on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls in 2017, but split in June the following year after a “massive row”. Speaking to the Daily Star at the time, a friend of the couple said: “Ryan and Lucy have been a really lovely couple and things had been great between them. It’s a real shock.”

The source added: “They had a massive row this week and called it quits on the spot, which will come as a massive surprise to everyone who knows them because they’ve seemed so loved-up. Right up until last weekend everything was perfect.” But thankfully, the couple reunited and Ryan popped the question in April 2019 when they were in Italy. They went on to have two children together, Roman, who was born in 2020, and daughter Lilah Rae, born in 2022.