Vanessa Williams Reflects on 'Penthouse' Nude Cover Scandal, Resigning Miss America Title 40 Years Later: 'I Give Myself Grace Now'

41 years after getting and losing the title of Miss America, actress-singer assured People that she's moved past the nude Penthouse spread that nearly ended her career.

Around the seven-minute mark of the video below, the Devil Wears Prada star spoke about the 1985 nude scandal that led her to resign as Miss America. Ten months after earning the crown in 1984, Williams, who was 20 at the time, was notified that nude photos of her would be published in the men's magazine without her consent.

The images were taken of her in '82 while she was a freshman at Syracuse University while working as an assistant and makeup artist for photographer Tom Chiapel. The photos of Williams and the other model were sent to Penthouse, although the actress was told that they'd appear in silhouette.

Williams said she talked to her parents and attorney after discovering the images and soon felt overwhelmed by the "chaos" around her.

“There was a tremendous amount of onus, pressure, shame, judgment...responsiblity” she said around the 8:30-minute mark. "I certainly took [that] on as a 21-year-old, for sure. It was global."

She continued, "I look back at a teenage brain and then a 20, 21-year-old brain being impressionable, being impulsive, feeling safe, feeling led. All of those things that you think, 'Oh, I'm an adult, I know what I'm doing,' and then, in retrospect, at 61, I look back at my 19, my 20-year-old self, my 21-year-old self and think, ‘Oh my God you were so naive, so trusting, so vulnerable.'"

"In your mind you think, ‘I’m old, I know what I’m doing.’ I give myself grace now, but as a young adult, I beat myself up, like, 'I should have known better," she said.

Williams, who's a parent to four children, including Lion Babe frontwoman Jillian Hervey, 35, also stressed how young she was in comparison to them.

"They're all older than I was now, but the fact that I became famous at 20 years old relative to their lives and having death threats and having to go through breaking a huge hurdle and what the repercussions of that was," Williams said.

"[They're like], 'Wow, how did you handle all this mom at 20?'" she continued. "Then I look back at my 20-year-old self and say, 'My God, I was a baby.'"

Williams shared that she's "really happy" despite the incident that nearly derailed her career, as in 2015, the Miss America CEO extended an apology for how Williams was mistreated. Williams was also invited to return as judge in selecting the 95th Anniversary Miss America.