Actress Vanessa Williams drops a bombshell (or two) in her new book

Vanessa Williams seemingly has it all. She's having an incredibly successful TV career right now in the final season of ABC's Desperate Housewives, and she was amazing as the evil Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty (a show I still miss, terribly). But in her new memoir, You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Hollywood, Love, Loss (and Each Other), Vanessa reveals shocking details about her early life. You know, before she became Miss America, resigned ten months later (nude photo scandal) and then went on to fame and fortune as a singer, Broadway performer and now, TV star.

Vanessa Williams is now speaking openly about being sexually abused as a young girl, and yeah, she's totally right: We really did have no idea!

Williams says she was sexually molested when she was just 10-years-old by an older teenager during a family trip. She also says she didn't tell her mother what happened. In fact, she didn't really process how something like that affected her until she was much older and in college. Williams' mom, Helen, didn't find out until mother and daughter sat down to write the book together!  

There's more: Vanessa Williams also reveals that she had an abortion, after getting pregnant in high school. And no, in case you were wondering, she didn't tell mom about that incident either.

Personally, I think it's wonderful whenever a major celebrity comes clean about sexual abuse. It happens more than any of us could ever imagine, and it damages some children for life. Vanessa is brave to put all of this out there, and hopefully others will learn from her life experiences.