Vanessa Williams Opens Up About 'Betrayal' Decades After Intimate Photo Release Scandal Ended Her Miss America Reign

Vanessa Williams has opened up about the crushing "betrayal" she felt after intimate photos of her were secretly sold to Penthouse without her consent, igniting a scandal that ultimately cost her the Miss America crown, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The Ugly Betty alum, 63, made history as the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America in 1983, only to be pressured into surrendering her crown less than a year later after the X-rated magazine published the nudes taken while she was working as a receptionist for a photographer.

"I feel like now, I think people who hear that story now will be like, 'I cannot believe that happened,'" host Jesse Tyler Ferguson told Williams on the Tuesday, August 11 episode of his Dinner's On Me .

"To put it in context, just plainly, Miss America was an ideal, and it was the exact opposite of nude pictures and a pristine image. That's why it was such a big, big deal," the former beauty queen explained.

"And also the betrayal and, like, you know, selling the pictures behind my back without a release, timing it so, you know, this was all going on when I became famous," she noted about how the photos taken in 1982 didn't surface until she was a household name after taking the iconic title.

Williams lashed out at "dastardly" Penthouse founder Bob Guccione for "trying to help orchestrate the drama of it all," saying the notorious p--- hustler was looking for the "opportunity to bring down" such an All-American institution with the photos.

"It's always money. It always comes down to money. How can I make the biggest bang?" the Desperate Housewives alum fumed.

"And of course, Penthouse made a slew of money on all of it," Williams noted of the magazine's September 1984 issue featuring her spread.

"I was caught in the middle, saying, 'Okay, I did these as a teenager. No one's supposed to see them. There is no signed release.' They shouldn't have been seen by anybody anyway,' Williams explained about the photographs taken by her former boss, Tom Chiapel, who sold them to Penthouse.

She continued, "But the betrayal didn't mean a thing because that was the news, and that, again, that news generates money," noting that there were only "three to five" stations on TV at the time and that the news cycle was so tight.

Since Miss America had propelled the then-21-year-old to fame, losing the title was crushing.

"I didn't have a career," she said about that time in her life, but it proved to be a blessing, as "It gave me the 'I'm going to prove it.' They have no idea who I am."

Williams said she had many "hurdles" at the beginning, as she fell into beauty pageants by "happenstance."

After winning, she shared that it felt like "being put in a box as a beauty queen; I was already fighting against that while I was Miss America because people assume that you're not smart."

At the time Williams resigned her title, she had only six weeks left before the new winner would be crowned. She showed off the "prove it" in her by landing movie roles a few short years later, forging a successful R&B and pop music career, starring in Broadway musicals, and becoming a beloved longtime TV star.