Leighton Meester may play a villain on TV, but in real life, the Gossip Girl star swears she’s got a heart of gold.

In the September issue of Harper Bazaar, Leighton sets the record straight for the first time about her reported sex tape, claiming it doesn’t exist. “[The tape] is not real,” she says. “So it makes me sort of sad. It’s unfortunate that it got carried as far as it did.”

In June, an adult film company released a dozen screencaps from a X-rated video that allegedly featured Leighton, then 18-years-old, performing various nude acts — including foot worship — with a former boyfriend.

“I definitely understand the nature of people better now and that the mere allegation of something like that could be headline news. People think it’s real because somebody says it is,” she adds.