Vanessa Williams - ‘It would be hard to be married to me!’
As a recording artist, Vanessa Williams has earned 13 Grammy nominations and racked up over 212 million digital streams over the course of her eight albums. Her most popular hit, Save The Best For Last, was Number 1 for five weeks in 1992.
She is also a highly successful stage and screen actor, appearing in Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty. She is currently starring on the West End stage as Miranda Priestly in the musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
It’s all a long way from her historic crowning as the first African-American Miss America in 1983 - she was later forced to resign after unauthorised photos taken when she was a student were leaked without her consent.
Vanessa joins us for an honest, hilarious and no-holds-barred conversation about her childhood, her romantic relationships, and - in a How To Fail first - why she regrets sending her daughter to boarding school.
Elizabeth and Vanessa answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content
00:00 Intro
02:47 Overcoming Scandal and Achieving Success
06:24 The Joys and Challenges of Stage Performance
10:31 Reflecting on Miss America
18:30 Family and Personal Reflections
23:40 Looking at Transparency and Shared Struggles
24:11 The Impact of Losing a Mother
26:00 A Mother's Influence on Trust and Relationships
28:51 Navigating High School Friendships and Trust Issues
30:07 Romantic Relationships and Parental Approval
34:58 Coping with Parental Loss and Family Dynamics
43:41 Musical Legacy and Family Bonds
Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
I have an upcoming one-off show at Cadogan Hall on 21 Sep for my new novel One of Us. Full show details here: https://www.fane.co.uk/elizabeth-day
Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan
Studio & Sound Engineer: Matias Torres
Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali
Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
How To Fail with Elizabeth Day is a podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven’t gone right and what we might learn from them along the way. Every week, Elizabeth’s guest explores three failures, and what these failures have taught them about how to grow and succeed, better.
We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with Elizabeth to share your failures, problems or questions - anonymously or otherwise. She'll go through these each week with the help of her very special guests. And remember: a fail shared is a fail halved. https://forms.sonymusicfans.com/campaign/how-to-fail-uk-2023/
An Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Original Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow @sonypodcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
- No. of episodes: 307
- Latest episode: 2025-07-23
- Society & Culture
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