When Ryan Thomas accused his ex-girlfriend Tina O’Brien of smashing up his Range Rover with a baseball bat, it was widely assumed the outburst was to linked to the acrimonious collapse of their relationship.
The wing mirror was apparently ripped off and the paintwork scratched following a famous row between the two actors in 2022 – one of many occasions in which tensions between the pair boiled over.
It’s fair to say that tumultuous confrontations have been something of a regular occurrence ever since Tina and Ryan – who met while both starring on ITV soap Coronation Street – went their separate ways in 2009.
I can reveal, however, that Tina’s fury – then and now – has been driven not just by her differences with Ryan, but by the predicament of their 16-year-old actress daughter, Scarlett.
Sources close to the pair say that contrasting approaches to parenting have caused real anxiety and emotion. While Tina wants her daughter to get as good an education as possible, Ryan and his brothers, Adam and Scott, have been happy to see Scarlett get an early taste of the limelight.
Scarlett has made it clear that she wants to follow her famous parents into the entertainment industry and appeared in the BBC’s Waterloo Road drama reboot in 2023.
Yet last week, in a video posted to her TikTok page, the teenager disclosed that she did not sit her GCSE exams this summer – and hinted there might be just a touch of regret.
The caption to the video read: ‘I’m watching everyone get there [sic] GCSE results today wondering if I could’ve had good results but I will forever wonder.’
Sources close to the pair say Tina O’Brien wants her daughter, Scarlett Thomas, to get as good an education as possible
Meanwhile, Ryan Thomas is apparently focused on Scarlett’s budding acting career
The news that Scarlett seemed to have brought her education to an early end left followers on social media aghast. And it’s increasingly apparent that it caused major turbulence at home too.
For friends say that Scarlett left her £20,000 per year school in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester ‘under a cloud’ just over two years ago – and shortly before her mother’s outburst. It’s not clear how Scarlett has continued her education since, given that it is compulsory to do so until 16, but it is likely she would have been home-schooled.
Sources tell me Tina, 42, was ‘beyond raging’ that Ryan seemed to be prioritising his daughter’s showbusiness career over her education. And that those tensions had made life difficult for Scarlett, then 14, at her private school.
One insider tells me: ‘Tina is a loving, sensible mum and was desperate for her daughter to have a normal upbringing and get an education, that was important to her. She is less flashy than Ryan and did not want Scarlett to rely on their showbiz connections.
‘Tina wanted Scarlett to stay on the straight and narrow,’ said the source. ‘She is the strict one while Ryan seems to like his daughter’s life in the limelight.
‘Tina has been so wary of Scarlett being described as a “nepo baby”. She wanted her to find her own way – and get the tools and the education to help her.
‘But it must be difficult being a teenage girl and being put out there by a parent. It must surely encourage certain behaviours – and there were some difficulties that began to really affect Scarlett and Tina just saw red.
‘She tried to get Ryan to see it, but he wouldn’t.’
Scarlett has portrayed Izzy Charles on the BBC’s Waterloo Road reboot since 2023
Scarlett often appears in TikTok videos with her dad’s family, including her uncle, Adam Thomas (far left) and cousin, Teddy (bottom left)
Tina and Ryan in 2007 – the year before Scarlett’s birth and two years before they split up
While Tina – who split up with her husband Adam Crofts around Christmas last year – has tried to give Scarlett a low-key childhood, Ryan, 41, has been filming his daughter and posting videos of her since she was a child. So have his brothers, actor Adam and Love Island star Scott.
This, I’m told, has infuriated Tina. Back in 2016, Ryan – now engaged to former The Only Way Is Essex star Lucy Mecklenburgh – was publicly lambasted for filming his then-eight-year-old daughter singing in the back of his car while he was driving at the same time.
Road charity campaigners at Brake blasted the former Corrie star.
Scarlett has already had some success in her chosen career, best-known to date as schoolgirl Izzy Charles in Waterloo Road – the on-screen daughter of her uncle, Adam Thomas who portrays widower Donte Charles.
Scarlett often features in videos with her famous dad and uncles as well as in ‘Thomas Family’ ones with the entire clan, including stepmother Lucy, half-brother Roman, six, half-sister Lilah, three, Adam’s wife Caroline, and cousins Teddy, ten, and Elsie-Rose, seven.
In a TikTok video from earlier this year, titled ‘Who knows our daughter and niece best?’, Scarlett asked a series of questions about, for example, her favourite celebrity crush and where she would most like to go on holiday. Her dad and uncles then tried to guess the answers.
At one point Ryan stated his daughter’s favourite drink was vodka and orange, despite her age.
‘You can imagine how bloody furious Tina was about that one, can’t you,’ said a pal of the warring pair.
‘Manchester is quite a small city and when you have a mum and dad who are famous it can cause problems.
‘Tina wants her to remain as down to earth as possible while Ryan keeps pushing her out there. He is all about the connections you make and networking.
‘For Tina, it is hard when Scarlett is exposed to all of that.’
Tina, who played Sarah Platt, and Ryan, who played Jason Grimshaw, became Coronation Street’s ‘it couple’. In 2008 Tina gave birth to Scarlett but they split a year later.
Scarlett has 206,000 followers on TikTok and a further 142,000 fans over on Instagram – with both accounts launched when she turned 16 in October
Tina and Ryan’s characters, Sarah Platt and Jason Grimshaw, became Coronation Street’s ‘it couple’
Tina has made no secret of her struggles as her daughter becomes a sought-after young star.
And it has only become more difficult since Scarlett joined social media. She has already amassed more than 206,000 followers on TikTok and a further 142,000 fans over on Instagram – with both accounts launched when she turned 16 in October.
When, three years ago, I wrote a story which revealed fury among some Manchester-based actors that Scarlett and her cousin Teddy had – seemingly through their connections – won coveted roles on Waterloo Road (set in a school in Rochdale, north of Manchester), Tina went on the attack and posted furious messages on Instagram.
While she is of course entitled to her view of my article, she did also give a glimpse into how tough it is to mother a young star whose father – and his brothers – seem determined to promote her young career.
‘I’d love to explain to you how hard it is to deal with the backlash,’ she wrote. ‘How as a parent I will try to do my best to protect my 14-year-old child from a stream of hurtful comments directed towards her.’
Tina went on to explain how her daughter had attended drama school since she was four years old, and for that reason she was not only winning roles because of her famous parents.
Tina herself is passionate about acting and runs her own drama school in Manchester, The Drama MOB, which discovered Adolescence star Owen Cooper.
One of her friends told me: ‘Tina absolutely loves to teach youngsters to act, she sees it as a form of art, Ryan is more into being a celebrity.
‘Nobody knows where the feud will end but Tina just wants to look after her daughter the best way she can rather than put her out there on social media.’
