Actor Bill Cosby paid thousands of dollars to a woman to keep her silent, according excerpts from the transcript of a 10-year-old deposition published by The New York Times.

The newspaper alleges that Cosby channelled $US5,000 ($A6,749) to Therese Serignese – who accuses Cosby of drugging and taking advantage of her – through her agent so his wife would not find out.

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The original Cosby Show cast. Bill Cosby played Dr Cliff Huxtable in the program.

The deposition transcript was part of a lawsuit brought against him by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who accused him of drugging and molesting her.

Cosby faced questioning from authorities for four days in 2005 and 2006 to form the almost 1000-page deposition.

Their relationship began when the actor started a “mentoring relationship” with Ms Constand.

Later, she accused Mr Cosby of giving her a powerful drug and then molesting her.

Cosby maintains he only gave her the over-the-counter drug Benadryl to calm her down.

He later paid her a sum of money.

“My wife would not know it was because Andrea and I had had sex and that Andrea was now very, very upset and that she decided that she would like to go to school,” Cosby said.

“I think I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things, whatever you want to call them.”

– with AAP