Desperate Housewives star Vanessa Williams is bravely and surprisingly opening up about sexual abuse she endured as a 10-year-old at the hands of a teenage girl.
In a revealing interview in the new issue of People, Williams says the incident occurred when she was staying with family friends and their 18-year-old daughter.
The 18-year-old entered her room and “pulled down the bloomers of my cotton baby doll pajamas,” said Vanessa. “I lay there paralyzed. What was I going to do?”
Williams remained close-lipped about the sexual abuse for many years, but is now sharing her secret in her upcoming memoir, fittingly titled You Have No Idea.
Despite the childhood trauma, the former Miss America said it didn’t emotionally scar her for life - however, there were long-lasting, indirect consequences.
“It didn’t paralyze me, and I don’t dwell,” she explained, although it did cause her to act more rebellious and “pull away” from her parents as a youngster.
[Photo: WENN.com]