Hugh Grant believes he has seen a ghost

He told Britain's HELLO! magazine: "I did see a ghost once.

"I was in a castle in the North of England and had a fight with my girlfriend in the middle of the night.

"She ran out of the room into the depths of the castle and I went out to see where she had gone.

"I stood on the landing at the top of the stairs and suddenly, at my feet, just on the floor, there was a white shimmering light around my feet.

"Then it went through me, down the corridor, through a wall into the main bedroom.

"The next morning, I said to the woman who owned the castle that I'd seen this thing and she said, 'I know - it's up there the whole time.'

"It was known as the Third Duchess or something.

"Looking back, it was the pattern that one of those big old dresses with a bustle would have made on the floor.

"I saw it - and I wasn't drunk."

Hugh shunned religion in his teens but now finds his local church a good place to escape from the "intense stress" in his life.

He said:" I was taken to church every Sunday by my parents until I was about 13.

"And then I said, this is too boring and nonsense and stopped going for many decades.

"And now, in my old age with intense stress with two many children, I sometimes go to the local church in my village in France and sit in there and ask St. Laurence to help me out.

"I can see why, the older you get, the more open you are to these possibilities.

"Especially as, to my horror, I now think there's probably another dimension.

"I don't want there to be as I can't cope with the ones we have."