Vanessa Williams Gets Miss America Apology
Here's one for the history books: Vanessa Williams had the asterik removed from her legacy as Miss America tonight.
The multiple award-winning actress/singer/model returned to the pageant stage for Miss America 2016 as a judge (who delivered the opening song), and was given the third biggest shock of her beauty queen career. CEO Sam Haskell apologized to her and her mother, reports HollywoodLife.
Williams became the first African-American Miss America in 1983, only to be stripped of her crown the following year after it was revealed she had previously posed for Penthouse. The notoriety stuck, despited her continued success.
“It was two drastically different images — that was the issue. It was Miss America, who is really kind of untouched and not reality, and then there was this woman in the picture that was the polar opposite of purity, and I was a normal kid in the middle,” she recently told Good Morning America.
”That’s one of the problems I’ve had to deal with in my career," she noted, "not only being a Miss America, but being a scandalous Miss America.”
Though Haskell wasn't involved with the pageant at the time, he said to her live on air at this year's show, "I want to apologize for anything that was said or done."
Rewind: Vanessa Williams Talks Following Cicely Tyson's Example in the video below.
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