Lindsay Lohan and family safe in Dubai following Iranian airstrikes

eastbaytimes.com · Mar 2, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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“Mean Girls” star Lindsay Lohan, a resident of Dubai since 2014, was reported safe Monday with her family in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as it and other locations in the Persian Gulf have become targets for Iranian missile and drone strikes after the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran. Sources familiar with the situation told TMZ that Lohan, her husband Bader Shammas and their son Luai were safe, though Iranian attacks had left residents and travelers in the usually gleaming, bustling city gripped with “panic and uncertainty,” as The Independent reported. Dubai is known as the business and tourism capital of the Middle East with its iconic, ultramodern skyscrapers, rising amid the desert and housing luxury hotels and residences for the superrich. The UAE’s ministry of defense told the Independent on Sunday that 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 541 drones had been launched from Iran towards the country. Three people had been killed and 58 injured, authorities said. In an updated report from the New York Times Monday, the defense ministry said it had successfully intercepted nine ballistic missiles, six cruise missiles, and 148 drones over the past day. The Iranian strikes immediately shattered the UAE’s image as a safe haven in the usually volatile Middle East, the New York Times also reported. In Dubai, five-star hotels caught fire, explosions shattered the windows of apartment towers and the emirate’s international airport was damaged, injuring four people. A country caught in the middle of war is not the image of the emirate that Lohan offered up to the world in the new issue of Vogue Arabia, which was published two days before the United States and Israel launched its attack on Iran. The 39-year-old actor and singer wore designer clothes as she posed for photos on the helipad of the landmark Burj Al Arab hotel, with the city, desert and Persian Gulf waters stretching out behind her. She said she had found a “quieter” life in Dubai, following the glaring spotlight of Hollywood. Lohan was a former child star who became a teen pop culture phenomenon, with starring turns in “The Parent Trap,” “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls.” But her personal and professional life collapsed amid legal troubles and reports of partying, substance abuse and unreliable behavior. Vogue Arabia said she found herself in “the toxic storm” of being a fun-loving, beautiful and successful young woman in the early 2000s, a time “of intense and often misogynistic celebrity shaming.” Lohan moved to Dubai in 2014 and met her Kuwaiti financier husband there. They welcomed their son in 2023, with Lohan telling Vogue Arabia that they hope to expand their family. “Being in Dubai is very grounding,” Lohan told the publication. “I get to just spend time with my family. The city gives me a sense of being with what’s most important.” Lohan also said she enjoys a sense of privacy in Dubai, where there is a noted dearth of paparazzi, especially around her child. “That’s a big breath of fresh air, having to not overthink everything you do every second,” she said. But several days after Lohan offered this vision of serenity in Vogue Arabia, the city found itself under siege. “I think everybody was caught unawares in the city, because obviously Iran was targeting the bases and missiles were going over us,” JS Anand, founder and CEO of Leva Hotels, told The Independent. “Sometimes they were intercepted, so there were really loud sounds, and some places got hit. So obviously that resulted in cancellations and a lot of people being uncertain about their flights.” An emergency message said that “a barrage of missiles” were coming in, Anand said. “Everyone came to the lobby and basement, worried about what was going to happen, so we had to take care of them. Most of them have extended their stay because there are no flights and no certainty on when the airspace is going to open up.” CNN reported Sunday that Dubai has become “a ghost town.” The winter is usually Dubai’s peak tourist season with the city’s beaches, malls and hotel restaurants packed with tourists and wealthy locals. Instead, highways are largely empty, as a streets in neighborhoods that are usually crowded well into the evening, CNN said.