Vanessa Williams On Miss America Pageant Apology

A few weeks ago, Vanessa Williams returned to the Miss America Pageant for the first time in three decades since she won in the early 1980s.

Speaking with CBS This Morning, she shares what the moment was like onstage.

"When they asked me to come back, I of course called my mother and she had some real reservations," Williams said.

But Williams agreed to return, opening the night with a performance of her song, "Oh How the Years Go By."

"I will be seen from my 20-year-old self and now I'm a 52-year-old woman who's had a career and that was important for me," Williams said about her decision.

After her performance, Sam Haskell, executive chairman and CEO of the Miss America Organization, issued a public apology to Williams - as well as her mother -- on the Miss America pageant stage saying, "I want to apologize for anything that was said or done that made you feel any less than the Miss America you were and the Miss America you always will be."

"Sam came behind me and I could feel his hands started shaking," Williams recalled the moment. "It was wonderful, I'm happy for my mom. I kind of wiped my hands and said, 'I'm moving on,' but they endured a lot."

Williams joins the cast of the hit series "The Good Wife" this season as a successful businesswoman who begins a romantic relationship with Alan Cummings' character, "Eli Gold," beginning this Sunday at 9PM on CBS.

Vanessa Williams on apology from Miss America Organization three decades after losing her title: http://cbsn.ws/1WUkPrg
Posted by CBS This Morning on Thursday, November 12, 2015