Rob Kim/Getty ImagesVanessa Williams is staging the ultimate comeback!
Williams will serve as a judge at the 95th Miss America pageant this Sunday, Dick Clark Productions announced Tuesday. The multi-hyphenate entertainer returns to Miss America more than three decades after she resigned following a nude photo scandal.
The Ugly Betty actress, 52, was the first African-American woman to win the crown in 1983, but when Penthouse magazine published nude photos from her past, Williams resigned her post. But she didn't let the scandal stop her from making her dreams come true. Williams went on to become a highly successful singer, actress and Broadway star.
Although the nude photo shoot is in her rearview mirror, she told Robin Roberts in an interview set to air Sept. 10 that it haunted her for a long period of time. "It was two drastically different images. That was the issue. It was Miss America who's really kind of untouched in that reality. And then there was this woman in a picture," Williams told the Good Morning America co-host, per Us Weekly.
"That was exactly the polar opposite of purity. And I was a normal kid in the middle."
Miss America CEO Sam Haskell told reporters that he couldn't be more excited to welcome the "Save the Best for Last" singer back into the pageant family. "When I became chairman of Miss America, one of the first calls I made was to Vanessa, to try to find a way to get her to come back," he dished. "Her return as a huge success is a way for us all to move forward and put the past behind us. It's truly an honor to welcome her back to the Miss America Pageant."
Williams will join fellow judges Brett Eldredge, Danica McKellar, Kevin O'Leary, Taya Kyle, Amy Purdy and Zendaya on the panel. Chris Harrison and Brooke Burke-Charvet will host.
The Miss America pageant airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
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