(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Billy Bob Thornton has opened up about how close a relationship he still has with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

The couple split in March 2002 soon after the Oscar winner adopted her first child, Maddox, from Cambodia.

And in a new interview with Anderson Cooper, Billy Bob told the talk show host that he has "always been friends" with the actress who is now engaged to Brad Pitt.

"See in the press ladies and gentlemen, sometimes if you get a divorce everyone assumes it was nasty and it's not always," he shared. "It's not that I haven't had a couple of nasty ones, but this was not one of them."

His marriage to Angelina was Billy Bob's fifth union and he now has a daughter with girlfriend Connie Angland.

"Angie and I are great friends, we always have been and we talk on a pretty regular basis," the 56-year-old said.

Angelina recently wrote a glowing foreword for her ex in his new autobiography The Bill Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts saying he had a "big beautiful heart."

Billy Bob recently told ABC Nightline that their marriage failed because he was "too insecure" and didn't think he was "good enough for her." (C) Cover Media