It was supposed be another sun-kissed step forward for actress Lindsay Lohan – a special Mediterranean break to celebrate a milestone birthday and to start building a rare long-term relationship.

But there is nothing romantic about these disturbing new pictures from the Greek island of Mykonos, where she stayed last month hoping, at last, to put a famously troubled past behind her.

They show an angry, violent altercation between Lindsay and her fiance, Russian playboy Egor Tarabasov. She now admits that he has assaulted her several times before.

Today, in her only interview since another terrifying episode two weeks ago, this time in London, caused headlines around the world, Lohan admits that a relationship she had hoped would bring marriage and children is violent, unstable and at an end – for the moment at least.

I realise now you can't stay in a relationship just for love,' she says.

'No woman can be hit and stay with that person if that person isn't prepared to say sorry.'

The pictures from Mykonos, which have only emerged now, show a tussle occurring after Lohan and Tarabasov argue in a black 4x4.

The 30-year-old actress hurls his mobile phone on to the sand and flees the car. He chases her, grabs her roughly from behind in an attempt to grab the handset back and twists her arm behind her back.

Lohan is reluctant to go into detail about the fight in Mykonos, saying only that she threw Egor's phone after he took hers. 'Egor drank too much and he went crazy.'

However, she does disclose the explosive truth about another fight between them just a few days ago when she ended up screaming for help on the balcony of the Knightsbridge flat they shared. The incident was filmed by a neighbour and became an internet sensation.

Lindsay was heard shouting: 'Please, please. He just strangled me. He almost killed me.'

The police were called and forced their way into the property, but no one was charged.

Lindsay left the capital and has not seen Egor since.

We meet in a hotel in Porto Cervo, Sardinia. With her long, red hair and scattering of freckles, Lohan is immediately recognisable, but nobody gives a second glance as she walks into the lobby, dressed in a designer kaftan and sunglasses.

She explains the events that led to the tussle on the apartment balcony. 'Egor and I had been out for dinner. We danced, it was fun.

'When we got home I went to bed and Egor went out. A few hours later he came back and when I woke up he was standing over me. He wasn't himself, he was being very aggressive and he attacked me.'

This is the first time she has spoken openly about Tarabasov and she starts crying. She admits she feels unsafe. 'I wanted to do this interview because it's time to tell the truth,' she says. 'There have been so many lies printed about me recently. I've kept quiet for so long but now I'm scared of what Egor might do to me and to himself.'

Still in tears she continues: 'It's not the first time. That's the problem. But this time, someone saw. I didn't call anyone, I've dealt with enough police in LA. I just left the house and went to the Connaught [Hotel] for the night. I contacted my good friend [Israeli socialite] Hofit Golan who was in St Tropez. She said, 'Get on a plane, come and meet me,' so I did. I needed some time for myself.

'I've spent the past week fishing on my friend Marco Mavilla's yacht with his lovely family in Sardinia.'

Mavilla is an Italian watch and sunglasses designer. Lohan adds: 'I've been meditating and swimming in the ocean and listening to George Michael's song, Faith. The lyrics are very apt.'

Lohan has been a big name for so long, that it is easy to forget she is still only 30. The former child star made her name in films such as Freaky Friday and Mean Girls – but her talent was overtaken by drug and alcohol problems, car-crash relationships and multiple arrests – and it is this that she is best-known for these days.

However, recent months had seen a change in Lohan, and the more optimistic of her fans hoped that by putting Hollywood behind her and settling down away from the public eye in London, her life was starting to recover. She met and became engaged to 23-year-old businessman Tarabasov and there were even rumours she was pregnant. She jokes with me that her newly visible stomach is the result of pasta and good Mediterranean living.

 Dailymail