(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Brad Pitt says that Jennifer Aniston remains a "dear friend" despite his hurtful comments about her in a recent interview which he maintains were misconstrued.

The Moneyball star opened up to the Today Show in an interview that will air this Thursday where he once again defended remarks he made about not having an "interesting life" while married to the former Friends star.

"I wasn't living an in interesting life myself. I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn't," he told Parade magazine about life for him in the 90s.

He married Jennifer in 2000 but they divorced five years later and he went on to build a relationship with Angelina Jolie who he had grown close to on the set of their movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

After a media furor erupted about what Brad said about his ex-wife, he later released a statement saying that it "grieves me that this was interpreted this way".

But he has once again spoken about the subject and says it appears he cannot say anything about his current partner and mother of his six children Angelina Jolie without Jennifer being brought into the matter.

"I don't know what was pieced together or put together. All I know is that my point was, the best thing I'd done as a father is to be sure that my kids have a good mother," he explains in the upcoming interview.

"That's all I was, or am, trying to say. It has no reference to the past. And I think it's a shame that I can't say something nice about Angie without Jen being drug in. You know, she doesn't deserve it.

"I don't want them to say anything bad like that about Jen. She's a dear friend of mine."

He added that Jennifer, who is now dating Justin Theroux, had not reached out to him about the comments made during the interview in Parade magazine. (C) Cover Media