FORMER Coronation Street STAR RYAN THOMAS AND HIS FIANCÉE LUCY MECKLENBURGH TELL OK! ALL ABOUT HIS ROMANTIC PROPOSAL IN OUR EXCLUSIVE PHOTOSHOOT
RYAN THOMAS AND LUCY MECKLENBURGH TELL ok!’s LAURA HILLS ABOUT HIS ROMANTIC ITALIAN PROPOSAL, THEIR DREAM OF A BIG WEDDING AND THEIR PLANS FOR CHILDREN
When OK! arrives at our exclusive shoot, a smitten Ryan Thomas can be heard calling out to his new fiancée Lucy Mecklenburgh: ‘You look beautiful, my gorgeous wife-to-be,’ while she flashes her yellow diamond engagement ring for the camera.
Ryan got down on one knee during a trip to Italy’s Amalfi Coast last month, just two years after they met on Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls. And as he proudly admires the TV star, it’s clear he can’t wait to make her Mrs Thomas.
‘She kept me waiting for ages before she said yes,’ the former Coronation Street actor reveals of the moment he popped the question during a private meal at the five-star Villa Treville hotel in Positano. He adds: ‘I kept having to repeat the question as she wasn’t answering me. She was just sat there with her hands over her mouth squealing: “Oh my God. You’re kidding me? Oh my God.”’
Despite their families being overjoyed for them, the couple reveal that Ryan’s brothers
– former
Emmerdale
star Adam and former Love Island
contestant Scott – were ‘surprised’ he was finally ready to settle down! ‘They see me as the Peter Pan of the family, I’m the big kid who never wants to grow up,’ laughs Ryan, 35.
As they excitedly show OK! a video of the moment Ryan proposed, Lucy, 27, reveals: ‘I am very work orientated and can be quite rigid but Ryan makes me more spontaneous. There’s never a dull moment with him!’
Here, the couple fill us in on their plans for a ‘big’ wedding, starting a family and why Ryan – who is dad to
Congratulations! Lucy, your engagement ring is gorgeous…
It’s perfect. I’d given him a few hints about what I liked! Ryan knew I loved yellow diamonds and knows I only wear gold jewellery so would always want a gold band.
Ryan: Awkwardly, a few hours before I proposed, she told me she’d changed her mind about what she wanted and now wanted a single diamond. A friend of mine runs a company called Bijoux Jewellery so he helped me design it.
The main stone is a yellow diamond and I got our birthstones put on the inside of the band.
How long had you been planning to propose? Ryan: I only decided a few months ago when I booked our trip to Italy. Lucy’s like my personal assistant most of the time, she plans everything, but she left this trip up to me. I got a travel company to help with the itinerary and when I realised how many romantic places we were visiting I realised there would be no better time to propose.
Did you have the whole proposal planned out before you arrived, Ryan?
I originally planned to do it at the hotel we were staying at in Positano. I had booked two Italian singers who were going to perform on our balcony while I proposed, but at the last minute I changed my mind.
What happened?
Earlier in the day we stopped for lunch at a fivestar hotel called Villa Treville and I just thought, oh my God, this would be the perfect place to propose. We got talking to the owner and when Lucy wasn’t around I told him I’d like to propose there that night and he agreed to help.
It sounds very last minute!
It was! He set up a gorgeous private table in the hotel’s garden that overlooked the sea and organised a chef for us and scattered petals everywhere. I still got the Italian singers to serenade us before we went out, though.
Did you have any clue that he was going to propose, Lucy?
I had an inkling as he told me to wear my best dress and get a blow dry, which is out of character for him. He managed to throw me off the scent. While we were listening to the singers, he said: ‘This is so romantic, I should have proposed here.’ He also got down on one knee and pretended to propose earlier in the day as a joke.
Ryan: Over the last few years I’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve been in a romantic setting and I’ve got down on one knee. It winds Lucy up!
Lucy: It’s mortifying. He does it in public places and everyone looks at us.
‘All my friends And family know how good lucy is for me’
What happened next?
Lucy: The minute I sat down at our table, Ryan got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and said: ‘I love you so much. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, will you marry me?’
Ryan: She kept me waiting for ages before she said yes! I kept having to repeat the question as she wasn’t answering me. She was just sat there with her hands over her mouth squealing: ‘Oh my God. You’re kidding me? Oh my God.’
Lucy: I was in total shock! I said yes and then we both started crying.
How did you celebrate?
Ryan: For some reason we thought it would be a great idea to go to a nightclub. We got there and immediately regretted it so walked back out again and went to a beach bar. And then she threw up!
Lucy: I don’t know if it was excitement or the champagne but I threw up as soon as we got to the bar [laughs]! Poor Ryan had to hold my hair back. I’d only had a couple of drinks so I think it was because I was feeling so overwhelmed.
Did you tell Adam and Scott what you were planning?
Ryan: I have the biggest mouth on me so I told everyone! I even told Scarlett. My brothers were happy for me but they were both a bit surprised. They see me as the Peter Pan of the family, I’m the big kid who never wants to grow up so they were shocked when I told them I was finally ready to settle down.
How does Scarlett feel about you getting married?
Ryan: She’s excited! She loves Lucy and she knows that marriage is a normal part of a relationship. I’ve always told her that me and Lucy are going to be together forever so I think she assumed this was coming at some point.
What is it about Lucy that makes you want to get married?
All my friends and family know how good she is for me. Lucy is so mature and grounded, she knows exactly what she wants in life, which rubs off on me. I can be a bit immature but Lucy has helped me to grow up. Before we met I was very happy plodding through life just me and
‘i can be a bit immature but lucy has helped me to grow up’
Scarlett, but Lucy made me realise that having a girlfriend was the missing part of our set-up. The three of us are a family now. Lucy is great for me but she’s also good for Scarlett, they have a lovely relationship.
Do you want to start a family together in the future?
Lucy: At the start of our relationship Ryan told me that he couldn’t see himself having any more children. It wasn’t something I pushed at the time because I wasn’t ready to have kids and I assumed that he would change his mind one day. It’s something we’ve since had to have an adult conversation about and we’ve agreed we will try for children when the time is right.
Ryan: I definitely want children with Lucy but I don’t think it’ll happen for a few years.
Lucy, why is Ryan the one for you?
I am very work orientated and can be quite rigid but Ryan makes me more spontaneous. He’ll come home from work and be like: ‘Shall we go to Ibiza this weekend?’ There’s never a dull moment with him and I think I needed someone like that in my life. We never stop laughing when we’re together.
Ryan: It’s a case of opposites attract. She settles me down and I make her more spontaneous.
You both have a lot to thank Bear Grylls for!
Lucy: We should probably invite him to the wedding [laughs]!
Ryan: We saw each other at our worst on Celebrity Island With Bear Grylls, the show we met on. We were starving hungry, stressed out and couldn’t wash our hair or brush our teeth and yet we still fell for each other. It gave us an amazing foundation for our relationship.
Ryan, did you ask Lucy’s dad for her hand in marriage?
Lucy: This is a whole story in itself! Ryan: I asked him at 4am during a night out at Amnesia in Ibiza. After a few drinks it seemed like the perfect time to ask him. The next time I saw him I checked that he remembered!
Will there be an engagement party? Lucy: Just a small one… [laughs]. Ryan: We’ve got 300 people coming! We’ve hired out a boat on the Thames and we’re going to make it Italian themed. We’re going all out.
Will any of the Corrie cast be there?
Ryan: Sue Cleaver [who plays Eileen Grimshaw] is coming, as is Brooke Vincent [who plays Sophie Webster]. And hopefully some of the others can make it. I’m really close to a lot of the cast, they’re like family.
What sort of wedding would you like? Lucy: Given the amount of people we have coming to the engagement party, I think we can safely say it’s going to be big! At the moment we’re torn between doing it in the UK or abroad.
Ryan: I’d like to get married next year but it’ll depend on if we can find a venue we love that’s available. We want to enjoy the engagement; we’re not in a massive rush.
Will your brothers be your best men, Ryan?
I’ve not asked them yet but they know they will be. Apart from Lucy and Scarlett, they’re the most important people in my life – Scott and Adam are my backbone, they’re there for me no matter what. I don’t want a stag do, though. I’ve been on enough to know that there is too much humiliation involved!
Will you invite any of your former
Corrie co-stars to the wedding?
Definitely. I have so many friends from Corrie. I’m close to quite a few of them and can’t imagine them not being at our wedding. It’ll be difficult to leave any of them out!
The last time we met, you were looking to buy a house together. Have you found anywhere yet?
Lucy: We still haven’t found anywhere! Ryan lives in an apartment in Manchester so we want to find a family home, but it’s proving difficult. We currently split our time between his place and my house in Essex.
Ryan: We’ll never be able to have just one home because Scarlett’s in Manchester and Lucy has her Results With Lucy business in London. People find it weird that we split our time between two places but it works for us.
Lucy, you recently admitted you begged a surgeon to make your face thinner when you were unhappy. Why did you speak out?
I want to highlight the importance of not rushing into a life-changing decision. I’ve seen so many people get work done and regret it. I want people to think before going under the knife. I was lucky that I had a surgeon who could see my decision was for the wrong reasons. People have messaged me saying they’ve cancelled their surgery after reading my story.
Do you think you would have considered surgery again if you’d stayed in reality TV?
I’ve always been pretty level-headed, even in my TOWIE days. Back then I was offered free surgery every single day but I always felt confident enough to say no. I’ve never even had lip filler. Reality TV has sparked a trend in excessive plastic surgery, which I think is sad. But like all trends, it will come to an end and what happens when big bums aren’t in fashion any more but you can’t reverse the work you’ve had done? It’s scary.
Ryan, you posted a picture with Michael Douglas on social media [right] and said there was ‘exciting news coming’... People should know by now that the Thomas brothers love to wind people up! I was just having a laugh! I bumped into him in London and we got talking. He was lovely so I asked him for a picture.
Do you have any plans to return to acting? I’ve lost the love for it a bit. I’m really content in the direction my career is taking away from acting. I found it hard going back to auditioning after Corrie. I’d only ever had one audition in my life and it landed me a role that lasted for 16 years. I find auditions really intimidating now. That environment makes me feel a bit insecure because I’m not used it. I was so comfortable at Corrie, so it was daunting putting myself back out there to be judged like that.
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