Viscount Linley is at the center of the case that's got British tabs buzzing

Who is the British royal family member at the center of the sex and cocaine scandal? It's not Charles, Edward, or even Harry but Viscount David Linley, son of the late Princess Margaret, twelfth in line to the throne, sources tell Radar.

His story is blowing up the British papers today, but British law prohibits any of them from naming the hard-partying royal. As the tale goes, two men demanded £50,000 from 45-year-old Linley in return for footage allegedly showing a royal aide talking of gay sex with him. The aide is also allegedly seen on a video tape taking cocaine from an envelope embossed with Linley's name.

After receiving the threat, Linley called the police who arrested the two men in a sting operation at the London Hilton in Park Lane. The veracity of their claims is still unclear.

Linley, whose mother was the queen's sister, is viewed as one of the few royals to have a successful career. His father is the English photographer Lord Snowdon Linley—real name David Armstrong-Jones—the chairman of Christie's auction house and a highly successful furniture and interior design manufacturer. Linley's clients include Elton John, Oprah Winfrey, and Mick Jagger. He designed a 60-foot boardroom table for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as several yachts for Arabian clients. He's often in New York generating business for Christie's, though the auction house say they are distinctly nervous at the prospect of his name becoming involved with the scandal.

He married aristocrat Serena Stanhope in 1993 and the pair have two children. In 1990, Linley took the unusual step, for a royal, of suing a British tabloid, the now defunct Today, over a story accusing him of rowdy behavior in a London pub. He was awarded £30,000 in damages. Last year it was revealed that William Banks-Blaney, an Irish salesman working in Linley's London furniture store had broken up the marriage of Gregory Barker, a prominent conservative politician.

UPDATE: Royal Won't Have to Testify About Gayness, Coke Use