CNN When nude photos of a celebrity surface nowadays, it's often rumored that the star may have "leaked" them. Photos: Controversies surrounding beauty queens. Vanessa Williams stepped down in as the first black Miss America after nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine. She went on to have a successful singing and acting career and has written a memoir. Hide Caption. The picture appeared on Matalon's Instagram feed on January

Williams originally made history on September 17, , when she became the first Black woman to win the Miss America crown. She attended Syracuse University and studied musical theater. In , while working a summer job as a receptionist at a modeling agency in Mt.

In the early 80s Vanessa Williams made history twice in being crowned Miss America. When she won the prize in September , she was the first African-American woman to do so. By July she became the first Miss America to resign her crown, all over some nude photos from that were published in Penthouse without her consent. Thirty-two years later, she will return as head judge of the Miss America pageant.