One of the major players in the JT Leroy drama has stepped forward to declare what many had suspected for some time - no one called JT Leroy actually exists.

In an interview with the same New York Times journalist who wrote a flattering profile of the non-existent author in 2004, Geoffrey Knoop claims that the books published under the name JT Leroy were written by his ex-partner, Laura Albert, and blames the stress caused by the scheme for their break-up. He also claims that he had seen her writing the books in their apartment and had been present while she talked on the phone with editors, writers and others as JT Leroy.

He traces the roots of the deception to a phone conversation Albert had with the author Dennis Cooperin 1996, where she adopted the persona of a troubled teenage boy. As the books became more successful Knoop persuaded his half-sister, Savannah Knoop, to make public appearances, thinking that she would "need to make an appearance or two, then JT would go back to being a reclusive writer".

He cited concerns for his son and other family members as reasons for coming forward, saying "if you're feeling more and more suffocated by the complications and lies, it's not worth it".

But with publishers already reeling from the controversy surrounding James Frey's memoirs, A Million Little Pieces, we're just waiting for the next big author to get in trouble with the truth. Maybe David Beckham didn't really write My World? Maybe George Eliot wasn't really a fellow? And that Shakespeare could never have written all those plays on his own, could he ... ?