How the Bad Girl of Hollywood saved herself from ending up in an early grave

Dressed in a diaphanous black gown, Lindsay Lohan walked the red carpet last week to audible gasps from the crowd. The actress radiated good health and looked, in the words of one besotted fan, 'simply spectacular'.

Even in somewhere such as Hollywood where superlatives are strewn around like confetti, the 38-year-old's triumphant return is being heralded as a 'miracle'.

This second coming has spawned its own buzzword - the 'Lohan-aissance' - now displayed in giant letters on billboards along LA's infamous Sunset Boulevard promoting her new Netflix film Our Little Secret which starts streaming on Wednesday.

For years, Lohan's name was synonymous with Tinseltown crash and burn celebrity culture - a human trainwreck who tumbled from global star with hits such as Mean Girls and Freaky Friday into an addiction to drugs and partying which landed her in rehab, then jail and eventually destroyed her career.

A talent manager who has known Lohan since the 1990s - when she shot to fame as a 12-year-old in The Parent Trap - said last night: 'Lindsay was finished. Kaput.

'No one wanted to work with her because her reputation was so bad. She would party all night and turn up late, if she turned up at all. At one point she was uninsurable.

'She was the classic case of a good kid who grew up too fast, got consumed by celebrity and imploded in front of everyone.

'Hollywood is a small town at heart, we all know each other, and no one would have been surprised if Lindsay had become another casualty.

'We saw her spin out of control. We were expecting to see a headline saying she had overdosed and was dead.'

Myself included. Her name seemed set to join Heath Ledger, James Dean, Matthew Perry, Marilyn Monroe and River Phoenix.

Regularly, I would see Lohan at the Chateau Marmont hotel, one of Hollywood's starriest, yet infamous, celebrity playgrounds where she was a pitiful fixture on the candlelit terrace most nights.

The actor John Belushi died from a speedball - a mix of heroin and cocaine - in one of the hotel's £2,500-a-night bungalows.

Britney Spears was once ejected from the restaurant after smearing food on her face during a psychotic breakdown. 

I remember seeing Lohan going to and from the ladies' loo at least half a dozen times one evening, her conversation with her companions becoming louder and more animated with each trip.

On another occasion, she was slumped in a chair on the patio loudly telling disbelieving waiters that she was waiting for a friend.

Then, a decade ago, Lohan disappeared off the radar.

So, where did she go and how on earth did she pull off her unexpected comeback? The Mail on Sunday spoke to several people in the film industry, including the talent manager and others who worked closely with the actress.

One producer told me: 'To understand how remarkable her return is, and how very rare such a comeback is, you have to understand her whole story.

'I can't think of another comeback like this apart from maybe Robert Downey Junior' (referring to the actor who battled drug demons to enjoy a career resurgence as Iron Man and who won this year's best supporting actor Oscar for Oppenheimer).

On paper, Lohan's story is reminiscent of many child stars who died of drug overdoses in their 20s.

She was born in New York to Michael Lohan, a former Wall Street trader who battled his own addictions, and Dina, a failed singer and dancer.

Dina, who has been described as 'the original momager', encouraged all her children to pursue showbusiness careers (Lohan's two brothers and sister are actors/models/singers), with eldest daughter Lindsay landing a contract with Ford Models at just three years old.

Adverts for Calvin Klein Kids and Pizza Hut led to an American soap opera, Another World, and then her breakthrough in Disney's 1998 hit The Parent Trap.

Lohan has described the part - playing twins who try to reunite their divorced parents - as reflective of her life at the time.

'My parents were going through a divorce. I felt like a second parent to my siblings in a way because I was the eldest and I was put between my mother and father a lot. It made it easier to play those characters,' she said.

Hollywood veteran Dennis Quaid, who played her dad in the film, said: 'I remember thinking "Oh my God, she's one of the most talented people I've ever met". She's only 12 years old.'

The film was a smash and led to hits Mean Girls and Freaky Friday and misses including Herbie: Fully Loaded and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.

A pop album was panned by the critics but went platinum.

But it was Lohan's off-screen antics which garnered global headlines alongside fellow 'It' girls Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Nicole Richie.

Celebrity photographer Giles Harrison recalled: 'It was endless: car crashes, falling out of nightclubs, bust-ups with boyfriends, court cases.

'Lindsay was big star at a young age and she was supporting her whole family financially. She wasn't equipped to deal with it.

'It was a different era, far more cruel than it is today. Lindsay was followed everywhere she went. Frankly, it's not surprising that she and the others melted down.'

In 2006, Hollywood studio boss James Robinson warned the starlet to curb her partying on the set of Georgia Rule, a comedy co-starring Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman. 

In a leaked letter, he called her 'unprofessional', saying: 'You and your representatives have told us that your various late arrivals and absences from the set have been the result of illness. Today, we were told it was "heat exhaustion".

'We are well aware your all-night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called exhaustion.'

As Lohan's professional reputation plummeted, her taste for drugs and high-profile flings increased.

A list of Lohan's lovers - that she wrote down during one of her multiple stints in rehab - made its way into the US tabloids and included actors Justin Timberlake and Colin Farrell, former England rugby star Danny Cipriani and Maroon 5's Adam Levine.

Brandon Davis, heir to an oil fortune, dubbed her 'fire crotch', a cruel nickname which stuck for years.

In 2012, she racked up a £36,000 bill at the Chateau Marmont. The hotel allegedly threatened her with legal action before it was paid.

There were numerous court appearances for, among other things, driving under the influence, reckless driving and the theft of a necklace.

In total, Lohan was jailed five times. She served 67 days of community service and went to five rehab facilities.

Lohan admitted she was battling addiction. 'It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs,' she said after one court appearance.

Her 'turnaround', according to friends, began in 2014 when she went to Britain to star in a West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow.

The manager said: 'Lindsay hasn't talked about this but I remember sitting with her one day, after yet another court appearance, and saying, "You are going to die if you keep up like this".

'She shook her head and said: "I know. But addiction is like a monkey on my back. I can't beat it".

'The next thing I know she's in London. We stayed in touch and, from there, she went further into Europe and ran a club in Mykonos for a bit and did some reality TV and then she went quiet. She changed her numbers. Offers came in but it was impossible to reach her.'

Another source said: 'I remember talking to her and she said she had to leave Hollywood. She wanted to live and knew if she stayed here she wouldn't survive.'

Photographer Harrison added: 'She cut herself off from all the bad influences. From the druggies, from the party crowd.

'She dropped off the face of the planet, at least as far as Hollywood was concerned.'

In fact, in 2016, Lohan moved to Dubai.

She felt 'safe' in a place where few people recognized her and where the paparazzi are banned.

In 2020, she met Bader Shammas, 37, a wealthy financier who works for Credit Suisse and comes from one of Dubai's ruling families.

A friend said: 'She met him, purely by chance, in a restaurant.

'Lindsay had a lot of therapy. She worked on herself. She wasn't looking for love but when Bader came along she was ready to settle down.

'When you think about it, she's incredibly brave. She walked away from everything she knew, worked on herself and lived under the radar.'

The pair married in 2022 and Lohan had a son Luai - which means 'protector' or 'shield' in Arabic - in July last year.

The family lives in a four-bedroom villa overlooking picturesque Kite Beach and Lohan said: 'I've never been happier.

'I took time just to be with me. What I love about Dubai is there's serenity there. I can live a normal life.'

Lohan had vowed not to return to Hollywood but 'dipped her toe in the water' with a Netflix rom-com Falling For Christmas in 2022.

'She loves acting; she hates Hollywood,' the manager said.

Lohan filmed a sequel to Freaky Friday, called Freakier Friday, this summer with Jamie Lee Curtis who called the now-sober star 'a revelation'.

The film is set for release next spring.

Her manager friend said: 'She looks amazing because she is truly happy. She has her husband and her baby boy. Now she has acting back but it's not the be-all and end-all of her life.

'She will go back to Dubai and live quietly again after this.

'Hollywood is buzzing. She's getting a ton of offers. There's nothing America loves more than a good comeback story. Just look at Donald Trump.'

What happens next in the 'Lohanaissance' remains to be seen.

But if Hollywood's response to Lohan's reappearance on the red carpet is anything to go by, her second act may have only just begun.