Starlet Vanessa L. Williams, 51, opened up about the sexual abuse that she experienced when she was a pre-teen. Williams gave a detailed account of her tremendously personal and traumatic experience.
The video of the account that has been circulating comes from an interview on “Oprah’s Master Class,” which aired on Sunday, July 13. In the video, Williams discusses the molestation that occurred when she was only 10 years old. An older girl whom she met through a friend’s family molested Williams during a camping trip in California. At the time, she felt very confused and torn over the incident.
Williams first spoke to People about the molestation in 2012. At that time, she described how an 18 year old daughter of her friend’s family took advantage of her on vacation. The incident was also discussed in William’s memoir entitled “You Have No Idea.”
In the Oprah interview, Williams recounted the experience in depth, saying, “One night she came into the room where my friend and I were sleeping, and she told me to lie down on the floor. She took my bottoms off and she said, ‘Be quiet,’ and she went down on me. I knew it felt good, but also something that was not supposed to be happening.” Subsequently, Williams said that she was “conflicted” about the experience. She wanted to talk to her parents about it, however, she received the news that her father’s brother passed away upon her return home from that trip.
Williams lost the Miss America crown in 1983 after racy, homoerotic photos of her were sold to Penthouse.
On how the repercussions of this incident impacted her life, Williams revealed, “It awakens your sexuality at an age where it shouldn’t be awakened. 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… there wouldn’t have been that shame that was always haunting me. It made me more sexually promiscuous and more curious at a younger age than I should have been.”
