Stephen Collins' estranged wife behind leak?

The cast of 7th Heaven with actor Stephen Collins (centre).

The lawyer for Stephen Collins has accused the actor's estranged wife, Faye Grant, of leaking an audio tape on which the 7th Heaven actor appears to confess to molesting young girls.

Collins made headlines when the secretly-taped conversation was published on TMZ.com.

The audio was reportedly recorded by Grant during a 2012 therapy session.

Grant inists she wasn't behind the leak.

"I had no involvement whatsoever," she told E! News on Wednesday.

However Collins' lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan has now accused Grant of using the tape to try to leverage more money from the star during their divorce proceedings.

"Over the course of my representation of Stephen in the divorce case, Faye has repeatedly threatened to give this audiotape to the media unless Stephen agreed to pay her millions of dollars more than that to which she was legally entitled," Kaplan told TMZ.

"When these demands were rebuffed, Faye attempted - without success - to peddle the tape in numerous ways to numerous different people. It appears that she has finally found an audience for this tape - not surprisingly, on the eve of the trial in the divorce case where, again, she is seeking millions of dollars more than that to which she is legally entitled," he said.

New York police say they have an open investigation into allegations that Collins molested a teenage girl in the early 1970s.

Police spokesman Stephen David says the complaint was filed in 2012 and accused Collins of forcing a then-14-year-old girl to commit a lewd act in 1972. David says the case remains open, but no charges have been filed.

The allegations first surfaced in divorce proceedings between Collins and his estranged wife, actress Grant, who said in documents filed last year that her husband admitted to the molestation.

- WENN