Thornton: I check on Angelina

Billy Bob Thornton says he and Angelina Jolie “check in on each other all the time”.

The Pushing Tin star split from the actress in 2002 and divorced the following year after three years of marriage.

But Billy Bob, 58, insists the pair remain close.

"She's amazing, amazing. She's got so much energy and so much goodness in her, and we check in on each other all the time,” he told relationship website YourTango.

"She makes sure I'm doing okay," he added. "I make sure she's doing okay."

Angelina has been with partner Brad Pitt now for nine years, and they share six children.

The couple became engaged in April 2012, and speculation has been mounting about their plans to wed.

Reports earlier this month suggested work commitments had kept them from walking down the aisle, although a ceremony is now said to be in the near future.

“It’s been a long time coming but finally it is going to happen,” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

“It will happen if they can make the dates work.”

It’s also been claimed Brad and Angelina are planning to mark the marriage on their bodies by getting tattoos.

"Brad really wants to do something special, and frankly, a little weird to mark the occasion, and they want to get the exact same design, in the exact same spot in their bodies," an insider previously told Radar Online. "[The couple are deciding] with what and where they will ink themselves to mark their long-awaited marriage."