Insiders tell KATIE HIND reason why Tina O'Brien's relationship ended
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As Sarah-Louise Platt on “Coronation Street,” Tina O’Brien has portrayed a life filled with drama on screen. Off-screen, however, her personal journey seems equally eventful.

Recently, news broke that her relationship with wealthy interior designer Adam Fadle concluded after a brief six-month romance.

The split seemed less than amicable, as evidenced by Tina, 42, quickly erasing all traces of Adam from her Instagram, including cherished snapshots from their September getaway in Greece.

This marked her first significant relationship since her seven-year marriage to Adam Crofts ended last Christmas. It adds another chapter to her complex personal life, which also includes a notable breakup with her “Corrie” co-star, Ryan Thomas.

It was the first relationship the star had been in since her seven-year marriage to ex-husband Adam Crofts ended last Christmas – and is just the latest blow in a tumultuous private life that has also included a painful break-up from her Corrie co-star Ryan Thomas (more on which later).

So what could have prompted such an abrupt end to another relationship that, until very recently, had seemed so promising?

The truth is, according to friends, that aspects of Tina’s life are ‘simply not always conducive’ to having another relationship.

And I’m told that these personal complications are what torpedoed her romance with Adam.

Corrie star Tina O'Brien has left her millionaire interior designer boyfriend, Adam Fadle

Corrie star Tina O’Brien has left her millionaire interior designer boyfriend, Adam Fadle

Ms O'Brien with her daughter, Scarlett Thomas, who played Izzy Charles on Waterloo Road

Ms O’Brien with her daughter, Scarlett Thomas, who played Izzy Charles on Waterloo Road

The actress with ex Ryan Thomas, who is Scarlett's father. They are also co-stars on Corrie

The actress with ex Ryan Thomas, who is Scarlett’s father. They are also co-stars on Corrie

The first of these are linked to Tina’s daughter Scarlett, 17, who was born during a turbulent relationship with her one-time co-star Thomas.

Scarlett, who is following in the footsteps of her famous parents by working as an actress, is said to be a ‘demanding’ teenager who has caused Tina to ‘tear her hair out at times’.

One incident in particular would shock anyone familiar with the Thomas and O’Brien clans, although for legal reasons I am unable to describe it here.

But nearly three years ago, Tina hinted at just how tricky it has been bringing up ambitious Scarlett, who made her name as schoolgirl Izzy Charles in BBC’s Waterloo Road.

I had written that there was uproar in Manchester that Scarlett and her cousin Teddy (the son of Ryan’s brother Adam Thomas, who also starred on the BBC drama) had both won roles on the show, while others who were less well-connected failed to get auditions.

Tina was furious, and took to social media to reveal the trials involved in parenting a young teenager whose father – and his brothers – were thrusting her into the limelight.

She revealed that Scarlett had attended drama school since she was four years old and insisted it was for that reason she was already winning roles.

‘I’d love to explain to you how hard it is to deal with the backlash,’ she wrote on her Instagram. ‘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.’

It’s partly for these reasons that the star is at war with Ryan, who regularly posts videos on TikTok featuring their daughter.

‘Tina hates the way Ryan does this – she wants Scarlett to learn the trade, not just be a TikTok star,’ a source close to Tina says. ‘But it has been an extremely messy co-parenting operation.

‘Imagine if you’re Tina’s boyfriend and you are putting up with a girlfriend who has those struggles.

‘You have to feel a bit sorry for her, really.’

Tina also has another child, a ten-year-old son named Beau, from her marriage to personal trainer Adam Crofts.

‘She has got two children of totally different ages and now she’s a single, working mum,’ a source points out. ‘That’s not easy. You throw another man into the mix and it’s even harder.’

Others are less sympathetic to Tina, who catapulted to fame in the late 1990s when she won the Corrie role as the daughter of Gail and Martin Platt.

Some say that ending the latest romance with Adam Fadle was ‘typically ruthless’ of the star. Indeed, one source said she could be ‘a nightmare when she wants to be’ and, at times, ‘a bit of a brat’.

One friend says: ‘Tina hasn’t had it easy, but she’s not always easy herself, either – her personal life is a bit of a soap opera.

‘She did a lot of the parenting of Scarlett alone and had a lot of rows with Ryan over the years, especially over money and who was paying for what.

‘Tina loves a ruck with a man.’

Things famously came to an explosive head between Tina and Ryan in 2022, when he accused her of smashing up his Range Rover with a baseball bat – causing around £1,000 worth of damage.

That followed a series of inflammatory social media posts by Tina aimed at Ryan. He, by that time, was in a new relationship with Towie star Lucy Mecklenburgh.

Further drama emerged last year when Tina was caught on camera brawling in the street with two teenage girls outside her £1million home in an upmarket Manchester suburb.

The actress was filmed screaming ‘get away from the f***ing house’ at the girls – who appeared to be aged around 15 – before throwing punches herself and being hauled into a headlock. While Greater Manchester Police investigated, no charges were brought and officers are said to have concluded Tina acted ‘in self-defence’.

As a former colleague explains: ‘The truth is with Tina none of this is all that surprising – she’s a live wire and at times that blows up into rows and anger.

‘She doesn’t think twice about lashing out verbally when she isn’t getting her own way, and she’s always had a bit of a sense of entitlement.’

Those who know her say she had expected to become a much bigger star during a break from the soap in 2008. But when that didn’t happen, she returned to the celebrated cobbles in 2015 and has remained there ever since – recently signing a contract extension.

It has led some to wonder how much of this ‘lashing out’ is frustration over the direction of her career.

The former colleague added: ‘Tina had become a household name and when she left she was all over lads mags and in the papers. She thought she was going on to bigger and better things.

‘But it didn’t really work out and she ended up back where she started. A lot of people thought she probably wasn’t very happy about that. She’d expected to land massive roles.

‘Tina can be a very unhappy and cross person at times and you have to wonder whether all of those factors combined spelled the end for her and Adam.’

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