Bill Cosby’s longtime rep, Andrew Wyatt, is speaking out after the comedian allegedly confessed to refilling his quaalude prescription in hopes of using them on women, telling Us Weekly exclusively that he quietly parted ways with the 88-year-old late last year.
“I’m hurt and disappointed,” Wyatt said to Us. “He was like a father to me. It broke my heart when I saw this today.” (On Wednesday, January 28, TMZ reported that Cosby admitted under oath that he had a recreational prescription for quaaludes and refilled it seven times with the intent of drugging women to have intercourse with them).
“I was the only one who visited him in prison. I was the one who walked him out of prison, not his attorney. I truly believed in his innocence,” Wyatt continued, claiming he was “kept in the dark” on a lot of things, not just this.
“I believed in him. I believed in his innocence, and I believed in what he was telling me,” Cosby’s former rep told Us.
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According to Wyatt, The Cosby Show star always swore he had never drugged any woman without their knowledge and consent and was “shocked and blindsided” to learn that might not be the case.
“I knew nothing about it,” he explained, telling Us that when it came to his working relationship with Cosby, “It was time for me to move on and move forward.”
Wyatt was by the comedian’s side through his entire legal battle with Andrea Constand, including his conviction for the 2004 drugging and sexual assault and his two-and-a-half-year prison stint. (Wyatt walked Cosby out of prison in 2021 after his conviction was overturned and continued to be a constant in the former sitcom star’s life).
“As the former publicist and crisis manager for Mr. Cosby, I am profoundly disturbed by the newly revealed 2005 deposition admissions regarding the provision of quaaludes to women without their consent. It seems that I was left in the dark by Mr. Cosby and his legal team regarding these material facts. As I continue to work in the high-profile arena, my professional work is, and has always been, defined by an unwavering commitment to ethics, integrity, and client transparency. These revelations reported in the media are entirely antithetical to my professional standards,” Wyatt said in a statement on Wednesday.
Cosby’s alleged confession is part of a sealed deposition in connection with a lawsuit filed by Donna Motsinger, according to TMZ.
Cosby reportedly admitted that his friend, OBGYN Dr. Leroy Amar, prescribed him quaaludes at a poker game, which was held at the comedian’s Los Angeles home, before 1972. (Amar’s California license was revoked in 1979, per the outlet).
In the suit obtained by Us, Motsinger claims the comedian raped her in 1972, during which time, she was working as a server at a restaurant in Sausalito, California.
Motsinger alleged Cosby asked her to attend his comedy show with him and picked her up in a limo. On the way to the show, she allegedly drank a glass of wine that she claimed Cosby gave her.
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While at the venue, she began to “feel lightheaded” and alleged Cosby gave her “1 or 2 pills,” which she thought were aspirin.
“The next thing Plaintiff remembers is going in and out of consciousness as men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limo with Mr. Cosby. Plaintiff remembers driving along the freeway, with Mr. Cosby putting his arms over her. Plaintiff woke up the next morning in her bed – all of her clothes were off except her underwear – whereupon she knew that she had been drugged and sexually violated by Defendant Cosby,” her lawsuit read.
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Cosby’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, scoffed at TMZ’s report of the sealed deposition.
“The reporting is per usual a distortion based on cherry picked excerpts of a deposition. Not once has Bill Cosby admitted to involuntarily incapacitating anyone,” she told Us. “Quaaludes were the party drug of the 70s. There were literal billboards that advertised the drug; they were consumed like candy. It will be for a jury to decide whether the plaintiff’s story that she took a quaalude believing it was aspirin is credible.”
Cosby and his attorneys are trying to get Motsinger’s lawsuit tossed out of court before their trial date on March 2.