Ryan Thomas struggled with newborn away from family

yan Thomas found it a "struggle" to not have his family around his newborn son.

The former \'Coronation Street\' actor and his fiancee Lucy Mecklenburgh welcomed son Roman into the world in March and the 36-year-old actor - who also has 11-year-old Scarlett with former partner Tina O\'Brien - admitted the hardest thing about having a newborn during the lockdown period was not having any "help or support" from their loved ones.

He said: "The hardest thing for us was not having any help or support within the house.

"I wasn\'t allowed to see my daughter, my brothers [because of the lockdown]. Those are the moments you want to share with the most important people in your life, that was taken away from you, so I found that a struggle."

And the couple also struggled with the sleepless nights.

Speaking in an Instagram Q&A for baby brand WaterWipes, he said: "It\'s been hard. It really does change the dynamic when you\'re lacking sleep."

But Ryan did his best to take the pressure off 29-year-old Lucy while she got to grips with breastfeeding by doing "simple things" to make her day "a bit easier".

He explained: "He [Roman] was constantly on Lucy. That was tough, so I was trying to take the strain off her a little bit.

"I\'m not gonna say I was perfect from the start - I was trying to work it out. We\'d gone from me and her to a baby and I was trying to change to a total new dynamic of a family."

Little Roman initially struggled to feed because of a tongue tie, and was then diagnosed with a dairy intolerance, which has meant Lucy has had to change her own diet so she could continue to breastfeed.

Ryan explained: "It\'s Lucy who\'s suffered massively through the dairy intolerance.

"Lucy can\'t have dairy - she loves her feta - all the things have been taken away from her because whatever she\'s having, Roman has.

"It was a real, real tough time, but I think we managed to get that under control a little bit now."