In a deposition a decade ago, Bill Cosby testified under oath about how he went about having several extramarital affairs, saying he paid women after having sex with them and bragging that he was skilled at picking cues about sex. The New York Times obtained the transcript of the deposition that the former star of the Cosby Show gave as part of a lawsuit filed by Andrea Constand, who says Cosby abused her. During four days of questioning, Cosby portrayed himself as a “cavalier playboy,” as the Times writes, describing how he used Quaaludes to sleep with young women.
Cosby said during the deposition that he knew a sexual encounter was consensual because he knew how to read people:
I walk her out. She does not look angry. She does not say to me, don’t ever do that again. She doesn’t walk out with an attitude of a huff, because I think that I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them.
At one point he says he offered to pay for one woman’s education and had paid others after having sex with them. Cosby also said he paid money to one woman who says he took advantage of her through his agent to keep his wife in the dark:
Q. And did that come from your personal account or from the business?
A. That’s from my personal account.
Q. So, was the purpose of that to disguise –
A. Yes.
Q. I have to finish my question. Was to disguise that you were paying the money to Theresa?
A. Yes.
Q. And the reason you were doing—who were you preventing from knowing that?
A. Mrs. Cosby.
Cosby also admitted giving women Quaaludes, justifying the action by saying it was “the same as a person would say have a drink.” While he insisted the sex was consensual, at one point he was asked whether a woman could have consented to sex after taking Quaaludes and said: “I don’t know.”
Cosby,78, has long denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged with a crime.
