Vanessa Williams reveals a shocking secret that she was molested as a child and shares how it affected her life. INSIDE EDITION reports.
Vanessa Williams is making a startling revelation. She says she was molested when she was just 10 years old by an unidentified 18-year-old teen.
On an episode of Oprah's Master Class on the OWN network, she describes what happened.
"She told me to lie down on the floor and she took my bottoms off and she said, 'Be quiet.' At that young age having that happen to you, in your body, it awakens your sexuality at an age where it shouldn't be," said Williams.
She says the incident changed her life. Williams stated, "It made me more sexually promiscuous and more curious at a younger age than I should have been."
Williams posed for nude photos when she was 19. The photos later surfaced in Penthouse Magazine when she became the first African American Miss America and she was forced to resign.
"Had that not happened in my life and had I had an opportunity to have a normal courtship with a boyfriend at 16 or whatever and have your normal first kiss, there wouldn't have been that shame that was kind of always haunting me," said Williams.
INSIDE EDITION showed the video, which aired last Sunday, to pyschologist Dr. Jeff Gardere.
"This is how you actually work through it. You have to talk about it. You have to let someone know about it. And she admits in some ways that she made a mistake by not talking about it earlier to her family. So I think it's a great thing that she's finally come out and discussed it," said Gardere.
