Access Hollywood responds to Donald Trump 'claiming Billy Bush tape was fake'

'I was curious, how do you apologise for something and then renege on it'

Access Hollywood hosts have spoken out amid reports that US President Donald Trump now claims the 2005 tape where he boasted about sexually assaulting women was fake.

“We wanted to clear something up that has been reported across the media landscape,” host Natalie Morales said on air on Monday.

“Let us make this perfectly clear - the tape is very real... Remember his excuse at the time was 'locker-room talk.' He said every one of those words."

Arianne Zucker, one of the women filmed in the tape, has also reiterated she doesn't see how the tape could be fake.

While she said she wasn't present on the bus, she told CNN's Anderson Cooper: "I do know that I was there working and doing my job... I don't know how else that could be fake, unless someone's planting words in your mouth."

Ms Zucker, who said she has managed to move on with her life, continued: "I was curious, how do you apologise for something and then renege on it."

"Having it come full circle I feel like haven't we learned our lesson? Haven't we moved on? Let's just take full responsibility."

On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dodged questions about whether Mr Trump believes the tape is fake.

“The president addressed this, this was litigated and certainly answered during the election by the overwhelming support for the president and the fact he's sitting here in the Oval Office today,” she said.

Reports that the US president has changed his mind about whether the tape is real originally came from the New York Times. On Saturday, the paper wrote: "(Trump) sees the calls for (US politician Roy) Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous 'Access Hollywood' tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women's genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after.

"He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently."

The tape surfaced shortly before last year's presidential election. It was originally published by the Washington Post.