Michael Lohan Defends Efforts to Save Lindsay in Heated Fox News Interview

(FOX News)

Lindsay Lohan's father became aggressive and agitated -- even using the ‘f-word’ to describe his frustrations with his public perception -- when the topic of his daughter’s three-month jail sentence came up during an appearance on Fox News’ “Studio B With Shepard Smith” on Thursday.

In a wide-ranging interview, Smith asked Michael Lohan about his reasons for allowing himself to be photographed smiling at a restaurant just hours after his daughter sobbed in a Los Angeles courtroom.

“I don’t think a lot of parents understand, sir, the way you conduct yourself,” Smith said to Lohan. “You understand why I mention it. Yesterday, (after) a whole day-long ordeal, you rush over to ‘Larry King Live’ to talk, and then these pictures after the sentencing of the night before.

RELATED: Lindsay Lohan Writes 'F**k U' on Fingernail in Court.

“I think a lot of [people] are probably saying, ‘You know, if you’d done half this much to try and help your daughter back in the day,’” Smith said, before Lohan cut him off in an angry attempt to defend himself.

“Are you kidding me?” Lohan said. “Give me a break. All of my effort is spent on trying to help my daughter, flying all over, back and forth, following her, calling narcotics agencies, meeting with the DEA, meeting with people. And I go out for five minutes to get some food and I spend ‘half as much time helping my daughter’ as I do that? Give me a break!

“That’s my kid, don’t tell me how much time I spend helping my daughter, or going out to eat dinner. Or how much time I spend in the f**king gym.”

Lohan immediately apologized.

In the interview, Lohan tried to explain how he was trying to help his estranged daughter, and he said his many public appearances, including the interview with Larry King, were “out of respect.”

“It could end in death,” Lohan said of Lindsay’s behavior, which has included excessive drinking, drug use and reckless driving. “If it was your kid what would you do? If you don’t know, and you’re not in my shoes, you have no place saying what I should do.”

He put all of the blame for Lindsay’s troubles squarely on the back of his ex-wife, Dina Lohan.

“When I had no other choice, and I found out what was going on in my daughter’s life, and when I tried to approach (Dina) on it and talk to her about it, she cut me off,” he said.

“I went to Shawn Chapman Holley, her lawyer, months ago with my lawyer, Lisa Bloom, and we said, ‘Let’s do something, let’s get her into rehab, let’s sit down,’” he said. “We set up appointments. Lindsay’s former lawyers, her drug counselors … said you need family therapy. You have to get the whole family together and do an intervention or do something to help Lindsay, and Dina wouldn’t come to the table.”

“Everything Dina has ever said has been proven to be a lie," he said. "Half the time I call her, she’s drunk.”

Lindsay was sentenced to 90 days in prison Tuesday for violating the terms of her probation. Despite a tearful plea from the 24-year-old actress, Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel said she found Lohan's apology insincere, comparing it to "somebody who cheats and thinks it isn't cheating if she doesn't get caught."