The time Grace Kelly spent three hours in a bath of baked beans for charity

Grace Kelly stepped into the small church hall wearing a plain cream one-piece bathing suit.

The late-summer sun outside provided a little warmth, but she new that would be scant relief in the hours to come.

She made her way to the centre of the hall where an ornate, free-standing bath waited for her.

The bath was full of Heniz baked beans and, slowly, the most glamourous actress in the world climbed into it and submerged herself in the popular foodstuff.

“I had a wonderfully charmed life by that stage,” said the then Princess of Monaco in a 1965 Wogan interview.

“I’d won an Academy Award and worked with some of the finest people in the business, I wanted to give something back. I wanted to do something for charity.”

Hearing of a cat shelter in Basingstoke, England that was in dire financial straits, the High Noon star swung into action.

“I found cats delightful, and the thought of those poor creatures having to be turned onto the streets upset me so.

“Well, I immediately flew to England and met with Sylvia, the lady who ran the sanctuary.”

Sylvia takes up the story

“Oh, that Grace Kelly? She was lovely, she really was. Ever so. I mean, without her, them cats would have had to be thrown out onto the streets or transferred to another cat sanctuary.

“She came all the way over here, and she didn’t have to, but she did. She came all the way over here and we had a cup of tea and tried to decide the best thing to do for her to help raise the £56 that was needed to repair the roof and keep the sanctuary open.

“She just wanted to give me the money, but I wouldn’t hear of it. She’d earnt that money and I didn’t want to take it off her.”

Sylvia came up with an ingenious money-making idea.

“I thought, if we had the most beautiful woman in the world sit in a bath of baked beans in the church hall, we could charge tuppence a look and we’d raise the money in no time.”

Sure enough, word got around Basingstoke, and even though it was a Tuesday, queues stretched back for a mile.

“Took three hours,” said Sylvia proudly, “to raise that £56. Three hours! But that’s Grace Kelly for you, everyone wanted to see her sat in a bath of baked beans.

“We even had sixpence left over, so I treated me and her to a nice piece of Battenberg and a cup of tea before she went.

After a bath to remove the last of tomato sauce, Ms Kelly flew back to Hollywood.

“I was to start Rear Window with Hitch the very next day, so there was no time to waste,” she remembered.

Rear Window was to be her last movie before marrying Prince Rainier and beginning her royal duties, which she would go on to perform admirably throughout the rest of her life.

“I met the President, the Queen, just about everyone,” remembered the Princess.

“But, to my mind, the most important thing I ever did was sit in that bath of baked beans for those poor cats.”