"Dirty Dancing" star, turned "Dancing with the Stars" competitor, Jennifer Grey has said that she never recovered from a fatal car crash in Ireland in 1987.

The actress and her then boyfriend, Matthew Broderick were involved in head-on collision which killed the occupants of the other car, a mother and her daughter.

The accident happened after the pair had found fame following "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Just days after the crash happened Grey was to begin filming "Dirty Dancing" which would cement her position as America's sweetheart.

"One minute we're going down the road and music is playing, and the next minute ... it's all different. I couldn't be fearless after that," she told People magazine.

"I became America's sweetheart within five days of the accident.

"The juxtaposition of that deep sorrow, the survivor's guilt, and then being celebrated as the new big thing just didn't jibe. It didn't feel good to be the toast of the town."

She says that this was part of her reason for turning her back on Hollywood at the age of 27, she never fully recovered from the car accident.

"My head was never the same, my ambition was ever the same."

Grey has made a couple of movies and appeared on TV, most famously in "Friends". She is now back on the TV as a competitor on "Dancing with the Stars."