Brad Pitt: Jennifer Aniston 'Diss' Was Misinterpreted

Amid promoting his new film "Moneyball" and jet-setting around the globe for film festival appearances, Brad Pitt found the time to accidentally diss his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston last week -- and now he's trying to make up for it.

He spoke to "Today Show" host Matt Lauer Thursday morning about his remarks in Parade Magazine, which ignited controversy prior to the story's publication last week.

"My point was, the best thing I’ve done as a father is to ensure that my kids have a good mother. That’s all I was or am trying to say," Pitt said to Lauer. "It has no reference to the past and I think it’s a shame that I cant say something nice about Angie without Jen being drug in -- she doesn’t deserve it."

The "diss" in question appeared in Parade Magazine last week, when Pitt insinuated that his marriage to Aniston was ho hum.

"I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn't living an interesting life myself. I think that my marriage had something to do with it," he told the magazine. "[I was] trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn't."

But before the magazine even hit newsstands, Pitt released a statement saying his words were taken out of context.

“It grieves me that this was interpreted this way," he said in the statement. "Jen is an incredibly giving, loving, and hilarious woman who remains my friend. It is an important relationship I value greatly. The point I was trying to make is not that Jen was dull, but that I was becoming dull to myself – and that, I am responsible for.”

Lauer questioned Pitt's choice to release the statement preemptively, to which Pitt replied: "I don’t want them saying anything bad like that about Jen. She’s a dear friend of mine."

Comments

[Michael Samra]

12:32 PM on 09/28/2011

The reason Jen and Brad spit was obvious...He wanted to be a dad and she wasn't ready to be a mom..My gawd,he has like 6 or 7 kids..Men look at their biological clocks to believe it or not.

[liberalcomesfromliberty]

10:42 AM on 09/26/2011

It's a shame that he has to clear up his statement. The American media has done more damage to America than the corrupt politics.

[BankerTee]

01:30 PM on 09/26/2011

Truer words have never been spoken.

[michelle coop]

10:35 PM on 09/25/2011

Us Pitt/Jolie people are a much stabler group then the Jen/Justin/next month guy.

[tangelan]

10:50 PM on 09/24/2011

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

Who is "them"?

[Gavin Saunders]

07:16 PM on 09/24/2011

The press is full of sic kos; when will they let this one go?

And don't give me the 'but you clicked' guff because I normally don't but this is in the headlines year after year.

[wanamoka]

05:44 PM on 09/24/2011

I think Brad and Angie make a beautiful couple. I think he deserves the right to be happy with the mother of his children.
I'm sure if my ex was brought up in every conversation I had with someone, I'd be pretty ticked off. Let the past be in the past.

[cribbisque]

07:03 AM on 09/28/2011

Then why do they do it? It doesn't seem that Jennifer does it.

[Badgirl]

05:29 PM on 09/24/2011

Credit for daring to find "true" happiness. Sounds like he took a good hard look and took a risk to find a better life. Leaving a relationship is a lot harder than it sounds.

[riverhouse]

04:23 PM on 09/24/2011

Brad Pitt is dumb as a plank.

[Mickey Ellis]

01:36 PM on 09/24/2011

An apology for dissing Jen, no apology for the affair and pregnancy and the lies surrounding that and her extended public humiliation as a result. Such a dear friend. Lucky lucky Jen.

[overlyelectrical]

04:14 PM on 09/24/2011

How do you know whether or not he has apologized for it? He just hasn't apologized to you, because despite the fact that you are unreasonably hurt by it, he doesn't owe you one.

[hchavez]

11:01 AM on 09/25/2011

F & F. I hope you don't mind if I use your response. This is by far the most witty and intelligent remark I've read on HP in a very long time. Thanks.

[Mickey Ellis]

11:23 AM on 09/25/2011

Dingbat.

[michelle coop]

11:03 PM on 09/25/2011

He's supposed to apologize for what? Having a baby after the divorce was final... and it was final before the pregnancy news came out. If everyone had to do that now adays there would be many men doing such. Just research and remind yourself that Jen and Brad were divorced....not just separated....when Angie was pregnant. How bout she apologize for the 2005 Vanity Fair diss or the 2009 Vogue diss or the Today show diss where she wouldn't do it, but had her interviewer tell Katie Couric what she thought. Jen fans tend to forget her trash mouth lies.

[cribbisque]

07:05 AM on 09/28/2011

But it is 2011. When does it stop and why does Ptt/Jolie keep it rolling? It's just unnecessary. Pitt came off like a stoner husband and I can tel you just how interesting it is to be married to a couch sitting "hey..." kind of guy.

[airbagfailure]

08:13 AM on 09/24/2011

I find it interesting that people say he shouldn't have said how he felt about his previous marriage. Newspapers make millions digging up dirt on celebrities, and one is finally honest, people want him to shut up, because all you other people are much more informed to make decisions about HIS life, right?

As far as i know, he rarely ever talks about Aniston, i'm sure it's out of respect for her. Okay, so they didn't work. It happens. These people who say "he should have stayed married to Aniston" are insane. Why do they want him to be unhappy?

Please media. Brad has seemed to be a guy who wanted to get married and have a family. He finally has that now, whether you like him, or loathe him, the guy deserves to be happy, which it looks like he is.

Enough already.

[Mayoyo]

07:42 PM on 09/23/2011

Leave Brad alone....
Whether he meant it or not, I could never understand what he saw in Jennifer Aniston..
for one thing the way she talks is annoying....

[java33]

04:39 AM on 09/24/2011

So annoying that she is among the very few forty something actresses who still get the job as the leading lady in the movies today?

[chicamorena]

04:10 PM on 09/24/2011

And always playing the same part (Rachel Greene or some variation thereof) over and over again. All she can do is rom-coms. And she's getting too old to do those and she can't do anything else. She's over.

[Christine Belon]

09:14 PM on 09/25/2011

I agree. She is really shallow to me. She made a joke about adopting a dog from every country and I decided I could not like her. I don't blame Brad one bit. Both Angelina and Brad seem to care about the plight of those less fortunate. I admire them both.

[LaFemmeSASE]

03:00 PM on 09/23/2011

Where is Michael Jackson when you need him? I swear the Media needs a new person to run behind because this is getting old and stale even for someone like me who does not like Brad Pitt. I think its time to give it a rest. He needs to shut up. She needs to shut up. The Media needs to shut up about this.

If you excuse me, I am going back to the Palestinian bid for staehood page, I just needed a break from the stupidity wars raging in that comment section. (guess i took a wrong turn somewhere, looks like one is raging here too)

[albertinad]

02:01 PM on 09/23/2011

I swear, every time this guy opens his mouth, a trailer park falls out. He might be "hot" but he ain't BRIGHT. He sounds like a stoner college dropout who got REALLY LUCKY in Hollywood. Just please.... don't let him talk so much.

[nettiebell]

01:54 PM on 09/23/2011

Jennifer Anniston is beautiful. It's his loss.

He and Angie deserve each other.

[chicamorena]

11:43 PM on 09/23/2011

They're very happy together with their children.

[cribbisque]

07:09 AM on 09/28/2011

Which is wonderful to have such media props. Seriously, though, I think it is great, but I have just never seen before couples that ended up together by virtue of cheating make such a big deal of ex-spouses. Paul Newman, Michael Landon, Charles Bronson and a huge number of others did the same thing, yet they never said anything, let alone diss, the ex-spouse. I think I prefer it that way.

[NunuDudu]

10:41 AM on 09/23/2011

And this folks, is why I never wish for fame.

Money and power on the other hand...