Vanessa Williams shot up to stardom after she was the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America. The 58-year-old then went on to pursue a career as an actress, singer and producer. She has found success both on the stage and the screen. She has starred on Broadway in Into The Woods and Kiss Of The Spider Woman and will be returning to the stage this May in POTUS. She’s also known for her on-screen credits in Ugly Betty, Shaft and Desperate Housewives. Through it all, she has been married multiple times, which she spoke about in an essay with Glamour.
“I’ve been married three times, and all my husbands are good men,” she wrote. “I wouldn’t have married them if they weren’t decent people. I think men go through different phases of their life, though. It’s great when that syncs up with what you want, but sometimes it might be later in your life when that happens.” Here’s everything you need to know about those marriages.
Jim Skrip
Jim Skrip and Vanessa are currently happily married! The two met while vacationing in Egypt and the two have a super cute first date story. “He was traveling alone and I had my daughter [with me],” Vanessa told The Knot. “My traveling companion—my interpreter—was like, ‘He’s single. You should talk to him.’ We started talking sports and it was my last night, and I said, ‘You want to have dinner at my hotel?’ Outside… We had a lovely three hour dinner.”
Just one year later, the two were engaged. They not only had one but two romantic weddings! The two tied the knot on July, 4 2015 at St. Stanislaus Church with an Egyptian-themed ceremony in honor of how they met. They wed again on Memorial Day in Upstate New York. As to why they had two weddings, “we got married in Buffalo. His annulment wasn’t done yet,” she told the outlet. “So we had to get remarried in the Catholic Church.”
The two are still going strong and the way she talks about him, it’s clear that she loves him and respects him. “Jim is a real man,” she told People. “You want somebody in your life who has integrity, who is solid, who knows who he is. He’s romantic and he’s a great guy.” In a personal essay on her marriages that she transcribed to Glamour, the actress shared that she learned he’s someone who meets all of her needs. “When I met Jim, I realized he was someone who could be a solid role model for my daughter, who could support me and my career and be a part of running my household and my businesses,” she shared.
Rick Fox
Vanessa was once married to basketball player Richard Fox. The two tied the knot in 1999 but unfortunately split five years later. In her essay, Vanessa explained why the two struggled to make their marriage work.”When we got married, I was 36. At the time I worried about being too old, even though I was still very young. He was in the NBA, which is basically another kind of show business, though it was high profile in a way I hadn’t experienced before,” she explained, adding, “Given our professions, proximity was a tremendous obstacle, so we had that issue on top of the age thing.”
The two divorced six years into their marriage in 2005. Even though they’re no longer in a relationship, they’ll always share their daughter Sasha Gabriella Fox. She was born in 2000, one year into their marriage and is now a successful actress and director.
Ramon Hervey II
Ramon Hervey II was Vanessa’s first husband. The music executive is well-versed in the entertainment industry so it’s no surprise that he met Vanessa. In fact, while we’re unclear if it happened before or after they got romantically involved, he was Vanessa’s manager. Mixing business with pleasure can sometimes lead to problems and that’s exactly what happened with Ramon and Vanessa. The two got married in 1987 but ended up divorcing ten years later. “My husband was my manager so we were working on my career together along with raising children,” she explained in her essay.
“I was always working my professional life and my life as a wife and mother simultaneously,” she continued “That means you have to be independent and make decisions. The kids’ schedules came first and my career came second, even though I was the main moneymaker. Unfortunately that meant the marriage came third.” She also added that there were “issues with infidelity” which led to the end of their marriage. During their time together, they had three children: Melanie Hervey, Jillian Hervey, and Devin Hervey.