Actress Dolores Hart was on the brink of becoming a big Hollywood star when she decided to become a nun.

Dolores Hart was once a Hollywood darling, with many predicting that the young actress would follow in the footsteps of Grace Kelly. She, on the other hand, never remained long enough to see it through.

She fled the bright lights of Hollywood in 1962, at the age of 25, for a tranquil life in a convent in Bethlehem, Connecticut. The 82-year-old now explains why she chose to devote her life to Jesus in a new interview with Fox News.

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She regarded her move to the monastery as a major change, noting that it was not something she had anticipated or planned.

“I think it’s important for anyone to understand that it was a dramatic change. It wasn’t something I planned on. I thought I would go through my time in Hollywood. However, this vocation showed me my life’s purpose. Then I started to ask myself, ‘What am I doing in Hollywood? Where is this going to take me?’ The realization became clear and really, it’s a gift. I was so lucky. God called me.”

Hath’s career began in 1958, when she made her Broadway debut in the play The Pleasure of His Company. The young actress was fatigued by the rigorous nature of the production. So Hart was delighted when a friend suggested she spend some time in the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, where she still lives today.

Hart claimed that she went to the abbey to think about her next professional move, but was welcomed with a relaxing calmness and an inner certitude that convinced her she belonged there.

She said “It was a friend who suggested that I should take a few days to rest at the Abbey of Regina Laudis. It was supposed to be a welcoming retreat from New York where I could reflect on what was going to be the next step in my career.

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“But I wasn’t expecting just how peaceful it truly was. I found inner certitude. I felt like this is where I belonged. It became more than just a retreat. It’s the kind of feeling you get when you meet the person you’re going to marry. The more I came to visit the more it came calling to me. And the more I knew God was present to me in a very special way that I couldn’t deny.”

Hart ended her engagement to Los Angeles architect Don Robinson in 1962, returned to Connecticut, and never looked back on her Hollywood career.

During her interview with FOX, Hart detailed how she ended her lunch meeting with Robinson after informing him about her ambitions to become a nun.

“I had a concern that somehow I wasn’t sure [about the engagement]… He was a beautiful guy and a real gentleman too. He was also an architect and built houses. I remembered as soon as he asked me to marry him, he found the place that he wanted us to live. I said, ‘Don, we’re going too fast.'”

“Then Edith Head, who was a very important woman in show business at the time who did fashion designs for everyone, she called me one day. Edith said she found this wedding dress that she thought would be perfect for me. I tried to explain that I wasn’t quite ready, but the next thing I knew, the dress was featured in this magazine with my name tagged onto it. Throughout this whole time, I was worried. I just felt this wasn’t right for me.”

She stated, “I felt in my heart that this was not my path. I told [Don] what I really wanted to do with my life. God was calling me and I felt it in my heart that I needed to answer. He then looked at me and said, ‘I’ve known it. I know this is what you want. I’m going to help you. I promise you that I will.'”

Robinson paid her a visit at the monastery at least once a year, aiding her in any way he could, in any way that was appropriate. He did this till his death in 2011.

Still, Hart has wonderful recollections of her time in Hollywood, including her conversations with Presley, who referred to her as “Miss Dolores,” about the Bible during production breaks.

She said, “We spent the time in between the scenes talking about the Bible. I never expected a fellow actor, in particular, to have that kind of genuine curiosity. He wasn’t trying to set up anything. There were no flashbulbs around to take pictures of us. He did it because it was in his heart.”