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Katie Couric: It was the shock heard around the world, the break-up of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. How could it have happened to Hollywood's golden couple? And what did Angelina Julie have to do with it? Now for the first time Jennifer Aniston is speaking out in a very candid 1 interview in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Contributing Editor. Leslie Bennetts conducted the interview last week.

Katie Couric:Good morning. Nice to see you again.

Leslie Bennetts: Good morning.

Katie Couric:First of all why do you think she is speaking now?

Leslie Bennetts: I think Jennifer has conducted herself with enormous restraint in the last few months despite constant provocations 2 from the tabloids 4 and to a certain extent from the way that her husband has conducted himself. And I think finally it may have been time for her to say what she really feels and set the record straight on a few things.

Katie Couric:In general before we talk about specific answers and parts of the conversation how is she doing?

Leslie Bennetts: I was thinking about yesterday how I would describe her if I had to use only two words to describe how she is now. I think she is still sad, as she would be six months after ending a 7-year relationship. But hopeful, she is very optimistic about her future. Her career is going great. She's got four new movies coming out in recent months , she is spending a summer filming another one. And she's got an awful lot to look forward to and she knows that.

Katie Couric: And she addressed some of the rumors 5 I mean Gosh! In the amount of things that have been devoted 6 to this story (yes) and one of them was that you know that somehow her not wanting to have children contributed to the dissolution of this marriage and she says that is absolutely not true and in fact she intended to be pregnant this year.

Leslie Bennetts: I think that was really the cruelest thing that was written about her. And she feels that just so sexist and misogynist 7 because she said to me I want to have children, I've always wanted to have children, I plan to have children. The plan was always there when Friends ended she and Brad would start a family. And she said you know no man who is divorcing ever gets accused of putting his career ahead of his family. But they said that about her based on absolutely no truth.

Katie Couric: What did she have to say about Angelina Julie,and her role and what happened?

Leslie Bennetts: Jennifer has bent 8 over backward not to trash even Brad, let alone Angelina. And she has only met Angilina once. Ironically she went up to introduce herself to Angelina and said when Angelina and Brad were starting to film Mr.and Mrs.Smith. Jennifer went up to her and said, "Hi, Brad is so excited about working with you. I hope you guys have a really good time together, which was very gracious of her.

Katie Couric: Was this before she knew that there was anything up obviously?

Leslie Bennetts: Yes,before they started doing the movie. (Right.) And that' the only time she's ever met her. And I you know she's been very very restrained, and I think,not only what she says but what she even permits herself to feel about that.

Katie Couric: At the same time I understand she cried for a period of time during the course of the interview. When you talked to her about the possibility of Angelina Julie being pregnant with Brad Pitt's baby and she her eyes welled up with tears and she got very very emotional at that point.

Leslie Bennetts: I think she's tried really hard to avoid the tabloid 3 gossip, media, because so much of this is false.(It's pretty next to him impossible, isn't it?). It's hard. Some of it leak through. And there were a couple of shocks. And I think it was a tremendous shock to her when the pictures of Brad and Angilina frolicking on the beach in Africa came out, because it's sort of presented them this instant family with a baby and Jen had expected to be having her own baby with Brad during this particular year.

Katie Couric: And then there was a spread in W magazine.

Leslie Bennetts: And then there was this spread in W magazine which Jen you know she tries not to look at this stuff. She says I haven't seen it. But her friends were just appalled 10 because you know it was clearly I mean Jen, one point said to me, well clearly there is a sensitivity chip that's missing, you know. I mean you know it was not the most considerate thing for Brad to be putting all of that out when she was trying to deal with the end of a marriage that you know she was committed to and clearly in some way he wasn't.

Katie Couric: I know that shortly after or during the course of this interview, Courtney Cox actually told you that Brad, about Brad. "I don't think he started an affair physically 11 but I think he was attracted to her meaning Angelina Julie.There was a connection. And he was honest about that with Jen. Most of the time when people are attracted to other people, they don't tell. At least he was honest about it. It was an attraction that he fought for a period of time. So does she believe that they were physically involved before?

Leslie Bennetts: I think it's ironic 9 and good timing 12 that you are doing something on emotional cheating because at the very least there was clearly emotional infidelity. Jennifer said to me you know from the moment Brad started filming Mr.&Mrs.Smith he was gone. He was just not there for her friends. Indeed she needed a lot emotional support it was the end of a ten-year family, you know and job and community for her. (And he didn't come to the last taping). He didn't even come for the last taping. He was just gone . You know its just like "I'm working". So you know whether or not there was physical cheating, he was emotionally absent in her, in her view. As far as whether there was, you know, a sexual relationship or not, she said to me in the end "I don't know. I'll never know, but I choose to believe my husband."

Katie Couric: You al, you interviewed them a year before this article, and they did seem like an ideal Hollywood couple I think that's why it is so upset to so many people.(Well) That it didn't work. Did they seem happy when you interviewed them?

Leslie Bennetts: They, they seemed , very happy together they were very affectionate. I had also interviewed her at the beginning of her marriage. But if you read back over what Brad said to me a year ago you'll really find clues to the whole thing. Because what he said to me a year ago was. I mean I asked him obviously about marriage, and he said you know I don't go for this you know till death took us apart stuff you know as long as it's good,as long as it's growing you know then you go on. But then, if it stops being good, you know I don't see any reason I mean to stay in it, basically was what he was saying. And Jennifer's view of what marriage you know consists of was very different, that this is a commitment and you'll end it for better or for worse. And those are two very different ways of looking at marriage. And that was the big part of why they are not together now.

Katie Couric: I know that when Nicole Kidman divorced Tom Cruise she said that one positive aspect of this was that she could wear heels again. And you ask Jennifer that question?

Leslie Bennetts: Brad is very into a modernist aesthetic 13 and when I saw the house that they had redone for themselves there were all sort of hard edges and hard materials and you know very uncomfortable modern furnitures. When I asked Jen what she's looking forward to? She said about, having comfortable furniture again. She was not quite in line with this aesthetic some of the time.

Katie Couric: Well, it is a very candid interview and we all wish her well and we all wish them all well. But thanks so much for coming Leslie, again and nice to see you.

Leslie Bennetts: You're welcome .Thanks.

Katie Couric: And the September issue of Vanity Fair, by the way, hits news stands today.