Vanessa Williams: How Being Molested at 10 Affected My Life

— -- Vanessa Williams is opening up about a past trauma.

At age 10, she was sexually abused by a female family friend while on vacation in California.

"This older girl was one of the cool girls," she recalled. "She made you want to feel like you were a grown-up and that was what made her cool."

One night, the family friend sneaked into her room and commanded her to lie on the floor. After instructing her to take off her bottoms, she molested Williams.

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"I had no idea what it was, but I knew it felt good and I knew I shouldn't be saying anything and I didn't tell anyone," she said. "I knew it felt good, but also something that was not supposed to be happening."

After the trip, Williams, now 51, contemplated telling her parents about what happened. However, after a death in the family occurred, she felt that everyone was too distracted by the drama and she said she suppressed the memory. It did have lasting effects, though. The actress said it made her "more sexually promiscuous" and "more curious at a younger age than I should have been."

"At that young age, having that happen to you in your body, it awakens your sexuality at an age where it shouldn't be awakened," she said. "Had that not happened in my life, and I had an opportunity to have a normal courtship with a boyfriend at 16 or whatever and have your normal first kiss, there wouldn't have been this shame that was kind of always haunting me."

Williams first revealed the abuse in her 2012 memoir, "You Have No Idea."