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Brad Pitt would like a second chance with Jennifer Aniston.

Not when it comes to their 5-year marriage, but about the rare jab he made at his ex-wife in comments to Parade magazine.

“I spent the ’90s trying to hide out, trying to duck the full celebrity cacophony,” the 47-year-old actor, married to Aniston from 1990 to 1995, tells Parade.  “I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out. It started feeling pathetic.

“It became very clear to me that I was intent on trying to find a movie about an interesting life, but I wasn’t living an interesting life myself,” Pitt continues. “I think that my marriage [to actress Jennifer Aniston] had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn’t.”

Now, before the magazine even hits newsstands Sunday, Pitt has released a statement to try to pre-empt the controversy generated by his comments toward America’s sweetheart, Aniston, who once described her ex-husband as “lacking a sensitivity chip.”

“It grieves me that this was interpreted this way,” he says in the statement, released late Thursday night. “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.”

The harsh words from the “Moneyball” star about his time with Aniston seem all the more biting when he goes on to talk about his happy life today with actress Angelina Jolie.

“I put much more emphasis on being a satisfied man,” Pitt tells Parade.  “I’m satisfied with making true choices and finding the woman I love, Angie, and building a family that I love so much.  A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss.  … That’s the tradeoff. But I’ll take it all.”

Pitt and Jolie met on the set of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” in 2004, while he and Aniston, 42, were still married.

He and Jolie are now raising six children together, Maddox, 10, Pax, 7, Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3.

“One of the greatest, smartest things I ever did was give my kids Angie as their mum,” she said. “She is such a great mum. Oh, man, I’m so happy to have her.”

Read the full Parade magazine interview  here.