Virgin River’s leading star Alexandra Breckenridge has taken to Instagram to candidly open up about hardship in her personal life as she and her family prepare for the festive period.

Mel Monroe (played by Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack Sheridan’s (Martin Henderson) love story in Virgin River quickly made the two stars fan-favourites among Netflix subscribers worldwide. So much so, that Breckenridge regularly updates her million-strong Instagram following with what she’s up to away from the hit romance drama.

However, she’s been left struggling to catch shuteye as of late after she and her family welcomed a new puppy to the household.

Taking to the social media site, Breckenridge shared how she grew concerned about the young pooch after it struggled to nod off at night.

In a video shared to her Instagram Story, Breckenridge first made light of the filter on the clip.

“That’s not what I look like right now,” she said with a chuckle. “I look so tired right now, it’s mildly disturbing.”

Detailing her pet’s tumultuous time at home, she continued: “The puppy’s been keeping me up at night, it’s like having a newborn baby.

“And I feel like – so there was this point where I was like, ‘Let’s get a new puppy!’ And then some of my friends were like, ‘Don’t do that to yourself,’ and I was like, ‘No! Let’s get a puppy anyway!’

“And then I was like yeah, now maybe they were right, maybe we shouldn’t have got a puppy, I don’t know.

“But then my husband got on-board and was like, ‘Yeah, sure, let’s message these breeders,’ fantastic breeders, lovely humans…”

“The point is – oh my gosh!” Breckenridge screeched after being startled by her child during her recording.

She joked to fans: “My child just scared the living daylight out of me!”

Getting back on topic, the Virgin River star divulged: “The point is the puppy has not been sleeping well.

“So I thought that maybe she had like a UTI because she had to go to the bathroom so many times one night.”

However, Breckenridge appears to have gotten to the bottom of her puppy’s woes.

“Then I found out, and I think she may still have had a UTI, I don’t know, but then I found out that my friends and my friends’ kid were over playing with the puppy,” she continued.

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, give her a scoop (of dog food), that’s what we feed her,’ and she [the child] was supposed to come up and feed the puppy with my husband who was sick and didn’t know.

“Apparently (she) gave two cups full portions of kibble to the puppy.”

A look of defeat soon etched across the former Walking Dead star’s face as she realised what happened.

In the end, she concluded: “So that might’ve been why she was up every two hours pooing and peeing. Great!”

Breckenridge clearly saw the lighter side of the story as she pulled a face to end the video.

Hopefully, fans won’t have too much longer to wait to see the Virgin River star back on screens as season five officially finished filming earlier this month.