Brad Pitt Asked Jennifer Aniston for Forgiveness for How He Ended Their Marriage

• Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have privately been friendly for three years now. They talk and text each other, a source told Us Weekly.
• Pitt sought Aniston’s forgiveness for the way he handled their marriage’s end “a long time ago.”
• Pitt attended Aniston’s 50th birthday party this weekend, sparking rumors they could reconcile. In reality, they are only friends with “mutual respect” for one another.

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Brad Pitt’s surprise appearance at his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston’s 50th birthday party actually isn’t that surprising, given the new details Us Weekly got about their private, now-three-year-old renewed friendship. The outlet touched on everything, from how Pitt apologized to Aniston for how their marriage ended to how their friendship formed now over time.

Pitt and Aniston started talking in May 2016. “Brad contacted Jen after her mom died, and she was touched that he knew what a difficult time it was,” a source told the outlet.

Pitt also apologized for the way their marriage ended. For context, Aniston and Pitt were married from 2000 to 2005. They split in part because Pitt was rumored to have left Aniston for Jolie, who he met and fell in love with on the set of their film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jolie and Pitt dated for 10 years before getting married in August 2014. Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016.

“Brad wishes he’d handled the end of their marriage in a more thoughtful manner,” the source said. (Aniston, in her first post-marriage Vanity Fair interview, famously said of Pitt “there’s a sensitivity chip that’s missing.”) “He asked for Jen’s forgiveness a long time ago, and she gave it,” the source added.

These days, Aniston and Pitt talk on the phone and text, the source told Us Weekly. In fact, Jen called “him the day after the party to thank him for coming,” so this past Sunday.

Us Weekly first reported that the two were texting in March 2017. “Brad has confided in Jen,” Us‘s source said then. “Brad told her he’s having a hard time with his split and they exchanged a few texts reminiscing about the past.”

Now, the outlet has been told by its source that Aniston reached out to Pitt during his divorce to let him know that “she’d be a character witness because of the serious allegation being made against him.” The FBI looked into Brad Pitt after he was accused of being both verbally abusive and physical with one of his children while en route to Burbank, California, from Nice, France, on his and Jolie’s private jet. It was after that trip that Jolie filed for divorce. Pitt was ultimately cleared by the FBI.

Pitt and Aniston are not about to reconcile despite the conversation; they’re just friends. Us’s source simply said that “they are two people who shared a life together and have a mutual respect for each other.” Another source told People more forcefully last year that Aniston and Pitt getting back together was never, ever going to happen.

“They broke up, and they did it because they had serious issues,” the source told People in February 2018. “They’re not stupid. They remember why it didn’t work.”