Lindsay Lohan asks why no one protected her more during her childhood stardom
After transitioning into the role of wife and mother and, in recent years, making a spectacular return to Hollywood, Lindsay Lohan is opening up about the crushing challenges she faced while growing up in the spotlight in the ’90s and early ’00s.
In a new Thursday cover for Vogue Arabiathe now 39-year-old actress wondered why she wasn’t better protected from Hollywood’s “overwhelming and all-consuming” scrutiny.
“I should have listened to my mom and dad and moved back to New York. But I was young and I wanted to be in Los Angeles. And I didn’t know it. So yeah, while a lot of it was fun, it was hard when I was young. It was a double-edged sword,” Lohan said.
“Now I look back and ask myself, ‘Why didn’t anyone go and get me out of there, to protect me more?’ “You don’t know how to do it yourself when you’re a teenager.”
Lohan rose to stardom after her breakout role in 1998’s “The Parent Trap” when she was just 11 years old, and in 2003, her fame skyrocketed after starring in “Freaky Friday” alongside Jamie Lee Curtis. Her career continued to ascend with 2004’s “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen” and 2004’s “Mean Girls,” which was released shortly after.
Still a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career and even lived briefly with fellow Disney star Raven-Symoné. After much success on the big screen, Lohan’s public image took a turn after she was relentlessly attacked by vicious tabloids and suffered legal problems, including being arrested twice in 2007 for driving under the influence just months after entering rehab in January 2007.
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Lohan, who later married her husband Bader Shammas in 2022 after moving to Dubai in 2014, said she uprooted her life to live in the United Arab Emirates after realizing she was “no longer having fun in the business.”
“I couldn’t find roles that I loved,” she said of her decision to move. “It’s not a life I wanted to live, you know? It’s not a real life. It took me so far away that I moved to the other side of the world. And I’m so glad I followed my instincts.”
Shammas and Lohan welcomed their son, Luai, in July 2023.
Since returning to the spotlight, Lohan has starred in a number of Netflix romantic comedies, including 2022’s “Falling for Christmas,” 2024’s “Irish Wish” and 2024’s “Our Little Secret.” She also found major success when she reunited with Curtis for the “Freaky Friday” sequel, “Freakier Friday,” which released last year and grossed more than $153 million worldwide.
Lohan told Vogue Arabia that living in Dubai has been “very grounding” for her, adding: “I can just spend time with my family. The city gives me the feeling of being with what’s most important.”
He called the privacy he has in the city versus the states “a huge breath of fresh air.”
Later in the interview, Lohan was candid about how aging in her career has given her a “different kind of confidence.”
“When I was younger, I didn’t feel as comfortable saying how I felt about a character and participating in their process,” she explained. “And now I love that part. I always felt like I had too many people around me and they were leading me in a different direction. And now it feels good to steer my own ship.”
Read Lohan’s full Vogue Arabia cover story here.