At 40 Today, Lindsay Lohan Is Looking Back on the Lessons, the Laughter, and the Years the Tabloids Treated as Entertainment

02 Jul 2026, 23:22 · Thought Catalog

LEONARDO MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images

Updated 12 minutes ago, July 2, 2026

Lindsay Lohan marked her 40th birthday with a reflection on Instagram: “Forty. Grateful for every chapter that brought me here. For the lessons, the laughter, the love, the unexpected turns, and the people who’ve stood beside me through it all.”

“This next decade feels different. More grounded. More intentional. More joyful. Here’s to family, friendship, new beginnings, and making the most beautiful memories yet.”

Lohan rests her face in her hands during a probation revocation hearing at the Beverly Hills Courthouse in Los Angeles on July 6, 2010. Photo by David McNew / Getty Images.

Lindsay Lohan has been famous since she was 11, when she played twins in The Parent Trap. By her late teens she was one of the biggest young stars in Hollywood, and by her 20s she was one of the most relentlessly documented young women alive. The arrests, the rehab, the tabloid covers that treated her hardest years as entertainment.

She’s spent the last decade rebuilding away from all of it. She married financier Bader Shammas in a private ceremony in 2022 and welcomed her son Luai in July 2023. The family is based in Dubai, where she moved around 2014 for a quieter, more private life.

At the Hudson Hotel in New York City, Lindsay Lohan smiles during the after-party following the premiere of ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ June 4, 2006. Photo by Evan Agostini / Getty Images.

The comeback has been steady. She led the Netflix rom-coms Falling for Christmas and Irish Wish, then reunited with Jamie Lee Curtis for Freakier Friday, which grossed roughly $153 million worldwide in 2025. This year she’s starring in and executive producing the Hulu drama Count My Lies alongside Shailene Woodley and Kit Harington, her turn toward heavier, more dramatic roles.

Dressed in a black leather jacket, Lohan strikes a poised look at the Gucci Cruise 2027 fashion show at Times Square in New York on May 16, 2026. Photo by Leonardo Munoz / AFP via Getty Images.

She was born in New York City on July 2, 1986. Forty years later, the chapter she’s writing looks nothing like the ones the tabloids wrote for her.

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LEONARDO MUNOZ AFP via Getty Images

Lohan rests her face in her hands during a probation revocation hearing at the Beverly Hills Courthouse in Los Angeles on July 6, 2010. Photo by David McNew Getty Images.

At the Hudson Hotel in New York City, Lindsay Lohan smiles during the after-party following the premiere of 'A Prairie Home Companion,' June 4, 2006. Photo by Evan Agostini Getty Images.

Dressed in a black leather jacket, Lohan strikes a poised look at the Gucci Cruise 2027 fashion show at Times Square in New York on May 16, 2026. Photo by Leonardo Munoz AFP via Getty Images.