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

Ryan Thomas and Lucy Mecklenburgh

Ryan Thomas and Lucy Mecklenburgh

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."