Forty years after a nude photo scandal forced Vanessa Williams to relinquish her Miss America crown, she can look back on the experience with some perspective and pride.
“I’m still here and I’m still standing. I’m still feeling strong,” Williams, 61, said in a People cover story published on Wednesday, July 24.
Williams was crowned Miss America 1984 the previous September, becoming the first Black woman to ever claim the title. The next July, however, scandal rocked her world when she learned Penthouse had acquired nude photos of her that she believed had been destroyed.
In response to the controversy, the Miss America Organization gave Williams 72 hours to resign from her position. In that time, Williams publicly experienced a full gamut of emotions.
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“There was a tremendous amount of onus, pressure, shame, judgment,” she recalled. “I took all that on as a 21-year-old. It was global. You can fail quietly, but that was a worldwide fail.”
Williams has come a long way since then. The Grammy-nominated singer is on the verge of releasing Survivor, her first album since 2009, and she will portray Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in a London stage adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, set to open in 2024.
In the years since the scandal, Williams has flourished in virtually every entertainment medium, scoring Tony nominations for her work on Broadway and starring in iconic films such as Soul Food. From roles in Ugly Betty (for which she received three Emmy nominations) and Desperate Housewives to a return to Miss America as a judge, she did not let the scandal define her career.
The Miss America Organization publicly apologized for its response to the scandal in 2015, with Chairman and CEO Sam Haskell III saying, “You have lived your life in grace and dignity and never was it more evident than during the events of 1984 when you resigned.”
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Williams accepted the apology.
“I look back at my 19-to 20-year-old self and think, ‘Oh my God you were so naive, so trusting, so vulnerable,’” Williams told People. “In your mind you think, ‘I’m old, I know what I’m doing.’ I give myself grace now, but as a young adult, I beat myself up, like ‘I should have known better.’”
Williams is a mother of four, sharing Melanie, 37, Jillian, 35, and Devin, 31, with first husband Ramon Hervey II. She and former NBA star Rick Fox also share Sasha Gabriella, 24.
“They’re all older than I was [during the Miss America scandal] now,” Williams said of her children. “[They’re like] ‘Wow, how did you handle all this mom at 20?’ Then I look back at my 20-year-old self and say, ‘My God, I was a baby.’”
