Dame Joan Collins fled a private members' club after being attacked with a bread roll

Joan told The Daily Mail newspaper's Eden Confidential column: "A drunken diner who inappropriately wanted to sit with us got upset and threw a hard bread roll at me, and she didn't even have the decency to follow it up with the butter.

"It was a private dinner for a friend's birthday, my once PR Stella Wilson."

Stella revealed that Joan was so upset about the incident, she left the dinner early.

She said: "Joan understandably was upset. Nobody likes to have something thrown at them.

"She and [her husband] Percy [Gibson] left. I was disappointed she had to miss the rest of my birthday but I completely understood why she left. I would have walked out too. Thank goodness it was only a bread roll. That was the frightening part of it."

Stella revealed that none of her guests knew the bread thrower, who earlier had identified herself as a fan of Joan's.

She said the woman came over to their table and was "swaying around and not making any sense".

Stella added: "She knew who Joan was because she told her, 'I have always admired you.'

"None of us could understand why she threw it. It was an upsetting incident for everybody."