Lindsay Lohan co-hosts 'The View'

NEW YORK, April 18 (UPI) -- Veteran broadcast journalist Barbara Walters welcomed guest co-host Lindsay Lohan to Friday's edition of The View, calling the starlet "a young woman I have been trying to interview for years."

"It's a special treat. After all these years of asking you, here you are and we are very happy about it," Walters told the smiling, 27-year-old actress, who is on the comeback trail after years of drug abuse, trips to rehab and legal woes.

Walters immediately asked Lohan about how her Lindsay docu-series on the OWN network, as well as her sobriety, have been going.

"Great," Lohan said. "I think it's important to be open and kind of share that with people; especially for me because people have so many misconceptions without knowing a person directly."

"View" co-host Sherri Shepherd then inquired as to whether Lohan regretted agreeing to her reality show's "no-holds-barred" approach.

"No," Lohan replied. "It was really overwhelming at first because I wasn't used to having the cameras around all the time and getting into new surroundings and re-learning how to live life in a different way was difficult. But the more I got comfortable with myself and settled in my home, and being in New York again, it became kind of normal."

So, what's the biggest misconception people have about Lohan? Walters wanted to know.

"I don't even know where to start," laughed the Mean Girls and Freaky Friday star. "I became an actress because that's what I loved to do and I think a lot of people forgot that's what I'm in this industry for. I think throughout the [Lindsay] show, there's a kind of a journey of me getting back into work mode and fighting to get the roles I want to get, which I'm willing to do."

As for her sometimes stormy relationship with her parents Dina and Michael Lohan?

"Everyone's in a good place now," she said. "I think a lot of it was me taking time for me and stepping back and not getting involved as the oldest sibling. And things just kind of fall into place the way they are supposed to, which is nice."

Lohan also said there is no special someone in her life right now.

"No, that has been a distraction for me in the past," she said. "This is a time when I want to keep feeling good and doing things I go home at the end of the day and feel really great about. That's working."

With the spotlight off of her personal life, Lohan gamely weighed in on the show's hot topics such as the selfie phenomenon and fathers who suffer from post-partum depression. She also helped interview guest Marisa Tomei and took part in a cook-off with Shepherd.