14 DAY TRIAL // Vanessa Williams was the first African American woman to win the title of Miss America, but her reign as one would turn out to be short lived: she was stripped of the crown and the title 10 months after she won it, when Penthouse published older photos of her that she claimed she had not signed off on.
The official Miss America for that year is runner-up Suzette Charles, but the first step towards mending that broken bridge was taken the other night, during the 2015 edition of Miss America.
Vanessa gets apology after more than 3 decades
The pageant, which saw Miss Georgia crowned as winner, had Vanessa as head judge and the moment was a historical one, especially for her many supporters: this was the first time that she came back to the pageant that helped her become the star she is today.
Unfortunately for her, her start was marred by a huge scandal, made even worse by the pageant organization’s decision to strip her of her title.
The photos in questions, which were very revealing in nature and involved another female model as well, had been taken before Vanessa won the pageant. She later said she never signed a release for them, so she believed they had been destroyed.
Penthouse purchased them from a third party and ran them after she won, when they were sure to get the maximum exposure. To this day, the winner of such a title, whether it’s Miss America or Miss USA, is not allowed to have her name mixed in situations as compromising as this one.
In Williams’ case, though, there was always a feeling that she was mistreated by the pageant organization and that she should have been allowed to keep her crown.
She and all those who have supported her all these years finally got to see justice done, when the Miss America CEO Sam Haskell walked up on stage and personally apologized to her, even though he wasn’t even on board the organization at the time.
You can see that in the video below.
A planned moment
After the apology, Williams also said a few words, specifically about how flattered she was to finally get it and how “unexpected” the whole thing was to her.
In reality, the moment was planned, and according to TMZ, putting it together was far from smooth sailing. Basically, Vanessa had been under the impression that a pageant official would apologize to her at the beginning of the show, before presenting her with a new crown.
The organization, on the other hand, thought Vanessa would be doing the apologizing for the scandal and that it would be the only condition for her getting the crown back.
Shortly before the show, the two parties were still fighting over who would be doing the apologizing. In the end, it was Miss America that owned up to it, but Vanessa still didn’t get a crown.
