Dina Lohan: Ex-husband Michael Lohan and I are now successfully co-parenting

Merrick's Dina Lohan, the mother of four children including actress-entrepreneur Lindsay Lohan, says she and her ex-husband, Michael Lohan, have reached a place of successful co-parenting after years of contentiousness.

"We've come to a very good place," Dina Lohan, 57, told Us Weekly in an April 29 interview posted online Sunday. "My children are older. When they were younger, I had sole custody and whatnot, but they're older now and need a relationship with both parents because that's important."

Dina Lohan and former New York commodities trader Michael Lohan, 60, had married in November 1985 and lived initially in Cold Spring Harbor. Daughter Lindsay Lohan was born in July 1986, followed by son Michael Jr., now a businessman, the following year, then singer-actress daughter Aliana in 1993 and model son Cody aka Dakota in 1996. Dina Lohan filed for divorce in January 2005, but it was not until August 2007 that the couple reached a settlement.

Dina Lohan, who with comic and former "Princesses: Long Island" reality star Chanel Omari hosts the upcoming podcast "Listen to Me, The OG Mama D," went on to say, "My girls [each] are going to marry a man and they're going to look to their dad or their grandparents to fulfill that hole or need, so I think it's very important" that the parents be good role models.

Currently isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic, Dina Lohan has had time to reflect on motherhood and marriage, she told the magazine. "I think the things that I buried to stay strong to raise my children started coming to the forefront and I was able to now clear my head," she said. "It hits you, and this is the honest-to-God's truth for my experience, it hits you from behind. You don't even know why."

On Sunday, she posted two maxims on social media. "Experience is a Great Teacher. Learn From It," read the first, followed by "There is nothing more beautiful than when you prove to yourself just how strong you are."

Michael Lohan said in a text message to Newsday, “I'm happy for Dina and wish her the best. I'm truly thankful that we are in such a great place and our relationship with each other and our children is so strong. It's a shame than our marriage of 22 years ended because I honestly feel it had an effect on our children but by the grace of God we overcame that and we've both moved on.”