“My friends found the very idea hysterical,” she divulged.
‘Vanessa as Miss America?
They have no idea who you are!'"
“I have comfort sounds.”
Williams’ parents were public school music teachers in suburban New York.
After hearing students practice at her house all day, it was time for her own lessons.
She played French horn and piano, which she wasn’t always wild about.
“Once I ran away from home to escape practicing piano,” she wrote.
“I’d had enough.”
“Because it feels good, you’re like, okay, well this is supposed to be normal.
That’s not normal for a 10-year-old to be seduced.”
For Williams, the abuse was life-changing.
“After that trip, I felt something change in me,” she wrote.
Things escalated when she began dating her college-aged boyfriend, Bruce.
“My parents couldn’t stand us together,” she wrote.
“I was impulsive and Bruce was ready for anything, which was a dangerous combination.”
During her senior year in high school, Williams discovered she was pregnant after missing a period.
Knowing she was not ready to become a mother, she opted to get an abortion.
Without telling her parents, she and her boyfriend found a doctor and ended the pregnancy.
While her fellow contestants were in the pageant circuit since girlhood, Williams was learning as she went.
“I’d met his wife and kids.
He paid me on time and was respectful,” she wrote.
“Why shouldn’t I trust him?”
Fast forward to 1984, when Williams was traveling the country for her duties as Miss America.
After her resignation speech, she took the backlash on the chin while already planning her next moves.
“One day the dust will settle and you’ll see what I’m made of.”
But Hollywood’s obsession with thinness began to warp Williams' self-image.
“I wasn’t used to being judged by how skinny I was.”
“I considered lipo, just to be able to be on screen,” she said.
“I’d get on the treadmill and do an hour.
When I get nervous, I can’t eat,” the singer toldEbonymagazine.
“People kept telling me how great I looked.
But your clothes are falling off, and it’s possible for you to’t face another day.
So I was looking my best when I was most miserable.”
“I said, ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful melody.
I’m surprised nobody snatched this up.’
It was one of those one-take songs where you just feel it and tell a story.”
Along with industry recognition, the song was a commercial hit, staying at No.
1 on the charts for five weeks (perBillboard).
Williams went on to releasenew musicthrough 2009, with a total of eight studio albums.
Vanessa Williams has had three marriages
Vanessa Williams has had her fair share oflove stories.
They had three children together, then divorced in 1997.
Williams was also anxious about their six-year age gap.
The couple had one child before splitting in 2004.
The couple is still together as of 2022.
Looking back, Williams has no ill will toward her exes, calling them all “good men.”
But pregnancy and women in the workforce was something entirely different in the late ’80s.
Critics adored her portrayal of Slater, and she wasnominated for three supporting actress Emmysfor the role.
“Our writers are brilliant.
I never know what’s going to come out of my mouth,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
“And the people I get to play with are amazing!”
Williams consulted her mother, who supported her through the whole scandal, before agreeing to attend.
“And I wanted to double-check that I got a chance to sing my music.”
Launch a fashion empire, of course.
But creating custom wardrobes wasn’t all that new to the singer.
“My mother sewed all of my dresses my whole life,” Williams said, per People.
“I remember going to the fabric store, picking out my McCall’s patterns.
It was a very creative household.”
As for her design philosophy, Williams follows a simple rule when she’s compiling her collections.
“I think the longer I waited, the heavier it got for me,” Hervey explained.
“Jillian is very maternal,” she said.
“She’s always been very caring and attentive.
