The former child star celebrated her birthday on Thursday.

Lindsay Lohan reflects on her ups and downs in emotional 40th birthday post: ‘Grateful for every chapter’

The former child star celebrated her birthday on Thursday.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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July 2, 2026 1:31 p.m. ET

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Lindsay Lohan attends Disney 2026 Upfront on May 12, 2026. Credit:

Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty

- Lindsay Lohan celebrated her 40th birthday in an emotional social media post, sharing gratitude for her family and career resurgence.

- "Grateful for every chapter that brought me here," the actress captioned the post. "For the lessons, the laughter, the love, the unexpected turns, and the people who've stood beside me through it all."

- Lohan included snapshots from some iconic moments in her past, as well as sweet photos of her husband, Bader Shammas, and son Luai, who was born in 2023.

Happy 40th birthday, Lindsay Lohan!

The star celebrated her milestone birthday on Thursday by looking back on all the trials and tribulations of her decades-long career, and sharing what she's looking forward to in the years to come. Lohan used a popular TikTok trend in a post shared to Instagram, reflecting on her iconic moments by decades and how much her life has changed.

"I'm 40 now but I once was...30, grounded, fulfilled, full circle," she wrote on the first two slides, which featured images of her with her husband, Bader Shammas, and their son, Luai, who was born in 2023. "This decade changed everything in the most meaningful ways. I got married, became a mother and understood a deeper kind of love, one that reshaped what truly matters."

She continued, "Returning to *Freakier Friday* felt like a full-circle moment, a reminder of where I began and how much I've grown along the way. I'm no longer searching for who l am, I'm living it. Choosing family, choosing purpose, and creating a life that feels as good as it looks"

Bader Shammas and Lindsay Lohan attend The One Party by Uber on June 12, 2026.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

The next slide revisited Lohan in her 20s in which she was "unstoppable, exposed, becoming iconic."

"Everything moved fast, often faster than I could process," she wrote. "*Mean Girls* became a voice for a generation, *Herbie: Fully Loaded* carried me into something bigger, brighter, louder. There was success, attention, expectation - and underneath it, a girl still figuring herself out. I was learning through experience, through pressure, through mistakes, trying to hold onto who I was while the world decided who I should be."

Then came her tween years, in which she was "10, discovering, performing, dreaming bigger."

"I was already working before I even understood what discipline meant," Lohan wrote alongside photos of her as a child star. "I've been in this business since I was 18 months old. Days on set, soap operas, scripts in my hands, playing parts while quietly finding pieces of myself."

She added, "There was innocence in it, but also instinct - a feeling that this wasn't just play, it was purpose. *The Parent Trap* was just ahead, and something inside me knew my life was about to change."

Lindsay Lohan at 'The Parent Trap Los Angeles premiere on July 2, 1998.

Barry King/WireImage

Lohan dedicated the post's final slide to "what's next," writing, "There's still so much I want to create. Exciting stories, ones that connect with people and also make them laugh, stories that feel honest and moments that stay with people long after the screen fades."

"I'm building with intention now - in film, in business, in the life I'm creating," she went on. "Choosing what aligns, what lasts, what matters. Grounded in love, in my family, and the life we're building together. The best chapters aren't behind me. They're the ones I'm stepping into."

The actress concluded her birthday celebration with a heartfelt caption to the post, thanking her fans for the birthday love.

"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," she wrote. "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 has been through a lot in the public eye since she captured hearts as a child star.

After navigating numerous tabloid scandals and legal issues as a teenager and young adult, as well as a permanent move to Dubai in 2014, Lohan mounted a comeback four years ago after signing a multi-picture deal with Netflix that produced 2022's *Falling for Christmas*, *Irish Wish,* and *Our Little Secret* (both 2024).

"It was all so overwhelming and consuming,” Lohan told *Vogue Arabia** *earlier this year about her decision to move and start a family, referencing the hectic Hollywood lifestyle she rebelled against upon moving out of the United States to seek peace overseas.

She added, "I should have listened to my mom and dad and moved back to New York. But I was young and wanted to be in L.A.," Lohan said of navigating the intrusive public scrutiny as a major It girl of the early aughts.

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"And I didn't know. So yeah, while a lot of it was fun, it was hard when I was young," Lohan continued. "It was a double-edged sword. Now I look back and wonder, 'Why didn't anyone just go and take me out of there, protect me more?' You don't know how to do that yourself when you're a teenager."****She concluded: "I wasn't having fun in the business anymore. I wasn't finding roles I loved. It's not a life I wanted to live, you know? It's not a real life. It pushed me so far away that I moved to the other side of the world. And I'm so glad I followed my gut."

Lindsay Lohan attends the 'Freakier Friday' NYC special screening on July 28, 2025.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Lohan also discussed the move in a 2025 * *cover story interview, in which her *Freakier Friday *costar Jamie Lee Curtis praised the actress' decision to move to Dubai to protect herself.

"She was looking to find [a calm] place and quiet. That wasn't going to be in New York or L.A., because they're filled with aggro people. It impressed me so much," said Curtis.****"I grew up so much in the public eye that I never really had the space to take time for me and just live a normal life," Lohan added. "I found it there."

Lohan added that "everything I do is [about] what's going to work for my family," saying that her choice of recent projects have a renewed focus. "If something works around that, it's meant to happen. If it doesn't work around that, it's a no-go."

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She also called the successful *Freakier Friday* sequel a "manifestation" she worked on while determining how to return to the industry she loved, after having not fronted a theatrical motion picture since 2013's *The Canyons* 12 years prior.

"I had this thing in my head during COVID, I was like, 'I want to work with Netflix and do a couple movies, but I want to work with Disney again, too.' It came to fruition because I believed it," Lohan said at the time. "Those things are meant to happen. I love my life, and I'm grateful for these moments I have."

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