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Vanessa Williams has revealed that she and her husband, Jim Skrip, quietly got divorced three years ago.
The 61-year-old singer shared that she split from her husband of six years in 2021 while speaking with People for a cover story published on July 24. While she didn’t specify why the marriage ended, the publication noted that Williams’ split from Skrip was amicable.
The former Miss America winner also shared that while she’s not dating anyone right now, she’s happy in her life.
“I’m doing what I love, and I’m in love with life,” she explained. “There is not one person that I’m in love with, but I’m in love with everybody.”
Skrip and Williams got married in 2015, after they met during their separate vacations to Egypt. Speaking to Glamour in 2019, Williams – who has four children from previous relationships – shared that after her first conversation with Skrip, there was already a spark.
“So I made the first move - he would never have approached me because I was with my daughter,” she said. “I found out he was from Buffalo, which is also where my mom is from. We started talking, had dinner, and then it just continued from there. I forced myself to be open, to take a chance.”
Speaking to People in 2015, Williams once again reiterated how quickly she and Skrip realized they were a good match.
“There was an immediate attraction, and after a long, three-hour dinner, we had so much in common. It was obviously meant to be!” she said.
Skrip was Williams’ third husband. She and her second ex-husband, Rick Fox, share a 24-year-old daughter, Sasha. The actor and her first ex-husband, Ramon Harvey II, also share three children, Melanie, 37, Jillian, 35, and Devin, 31.
During her recent interview with People, she also opened up about how someone could catch her eye nowadays. “My orbit’s not like you need a special pass to get in. I finish my show, I go out and sign autographs and I talk to people,” she explained. “I’m pretty open.”
Despite her split from Skrip, Williams once again expressed how happy she has been throughout her everyday life. “I love my freedom,” she explained. “I love being alive, having options in my life, and being surrounded by beautiful things, great people, and wonderful opportunities.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Williams spoke about how she made headlines 40 years ago, after the naked stills she’d posed for when she was 19 were released. The nude photo scandal occured when Williams was 21, after she had just been crowned Miss America during the 1984 competition, making her the first Black woman to assume the title.
When Williams first posed nude, she’d been told that only shadows of her silhouette would be sold to Penthouse magazine, which wasn’t the case. In addition, the photographer initially told her and another model that their identities wouldn’t be exposed.
Amid the photo scandal in 1984, Miss America pushed for Williams to resign and forfeit her national title. However, in 2015, the organization issued a statement apologizing for encouraging Williams to resign.
“I look back at my 19-to 20-year-old self and think: ‘Oh my God you were so naive, so trusting, so vulnerable.’ In your mind you think: ‘I’m old, I know what I’m doing,” she told People. “I give myself grace now, but as a young adult, I beat myself up, like ‘I should have known better.’”
“There was a tremendous amount of onus, pressure, shame, judgment. I took all that on as a 21 year old,” she added. “It was global. You can fail quietly, but that was a worldwide fail.”
