Brad Pitt claims that he and Jennifer Aniston are still very good friends and that he just had to follow his heart to ensure he lived the life he dreamed of.

"Jen and I still maintain a deep friendship and have a lot of life together that isn’t erased in any way," the actor tells V magazine of the couple’s four-and-a-half year union, which ended in 2005.

"I don’t know how better to have handled [the split]. My view was, this was no one’s business in the end – at least in matters of the heart," he says. "The thing guiding me then was, you don’t know how many days you have, and you need life to be everything you need it to be." . . .

Adds Pitt, who now has four children with Angelina Jolie: "Those questions had to be answered before an attraction to Angie could be answered."

We’re curious about how Jennifer would describe their relationship. BFFs? Doubt it.

Oh…and here’s an Anatomy Lesson for Brad: That body part you followed out of your marriage and into Angelina Jolie? Clue - the heart is above the belt.

Got it? Good.

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