Vanessa Williams addresses viral Miss America nude scandal 40 years later

Vanessa Williams has reflected on the nude photo scandal that nearly derailed her career and the lessons she learned about herself in the aftermath.

When Williams was just 21 years old, her biggest feat was met with a betrayal. The now actress had just been crowned Miss America during the 1984 competition, marking a turning point in history as the first Black woman to assume the title.

However, on July 13, 1984, the singer learned that the naked stills she’d posed for when she was 19, which she’d been told would be only shadows of her silhouette, but now exposed her entirely, would be sold to Penthouse magazine. Williams had posed for a photographer she worked as a receptionist for at a modeling agency in New York. At the time, the photographer had told her and another model that their identity wouldn’t be exposed, which turned out to be untrue.

“I look back at my 19-to 20-year-old self and think: ‘Oh my God you were so naive, so trusting, so vulnerable.’ In your mind you think: ‘I’m old, I know what I’m doing,’” Williams told People magazine in an article published July 24. “I give myself grace now, but as a young adult, I beat myself up, like ‘I should have known better.’”

As for the subsequent attention surrounding her after news of the photos leaked, Williams remembers feeling as if she was sent spiraling into a pit of shame.

“There was a tremendous amount of onus, pressure, shame, judgment. I took all that on as a 21 year old,” the musical performer confessed. “It was global. You can fail quietly, but that was a worldwide fail.”

On top of all the internet vitriol, Miss America pushed for Williams to resign and forfeit her national title. Then, in 2015, the organization issued a statement, apologizing for the way it had responded to the situation.

Forty years later, Williams sees the situation as one she overcame and can use as a learning tool for the younger generation. As a mother of four to children who are now older than she was when she posed for the photographer, her perspective on the situation has drastically changed. While she said she felt heaps of self-doubt and guilt in the wake of the scandal, the fact that she was able to move past it all with grace examples her strength.

“The fact that I became famous at 20 years old relative to their lives and having death threats and having to go through breaking a huge hurdle and what the repercussions of that was,” Williams noted. “I look back at my 20-year-old self and say:‘My God, I was a baby.’”

That said, Williams has continued to build her career, seeking and accepting opportunities regardless of the conversations about her character from people who didn’t even know her. As an artist who loves to be behind the camera, in front of it, on stage, and off stage, she’s starred in several productions from Ugly Betty to Desperate Housewives.