Vanessa Williams Recalls The First Thing She Did When Her Nude Photo Scandal Broke

In 1984, Williams became the first Black Miss America. But she was stripped of her title and publicly shamed after nude photos of her were sold to Penthouse.

Vanessa Williams doesn’t know how she survived the whole “hullabaloo” of her nude photo scandal.

“There was a tremendous amount of onus, pressure, shame, judgment,” she recalled to People magazine in a video profile Wednesday. “I took all that on as a 21 year old. It was global. You can fail quietly, but that was a worldwide fail.”

The “Save the Best for Last” singer made history as the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America in 1983.

Then, 10 months into her reign, Puritanical nonsense temporarily derailed her career. On July 13, 1984, she was stunned to learn — in the middle of an interview — that Penthouse magazine was going to release nude photos of her. Williams said her knee-jerk reaction was to call her parents.

“I talked to my parents, and I talked to my attorney,” Williams said. “That’s when we started to strategize what’s going on …because I hadn’t signed a release.”