LOS ANGELES: Lawyers for Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, asked a federal judge on Monday to delay a deposition by her scheduled for Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit brought by seven women who allege the entertainer sexually abused them.

The lawyers said in papers filed in US district court in Massachusetts that the sworn interview should be delayed pending an appeal on whether Camille Cosby could be required to testify at all.

On Dec. 31, a federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts rejected arguments by Camille Cosby, the comedian’s wife of almost 52 years and his business manager, that the deposition would represent an “undue burden.”

Cosby lawyers argued the intimate nature of the questions expected during the deposition justified a delay, noting that their ability to object to such evidence at trial would not spare their client embarrassment.