“One week in late March, I overheard security saying that Brad was meeting with [Jen] in Central Park before going to see Angelina on the set,” housekeeper Anna Kowalski tells In Touch.

While Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may have managed to trick the world into thinking everything is fine, In Touch has exclusive details that making the decision to leave was a long time coming for Brad, who friends say has been miserable for months.

But as In Touch can now exclusively reveal, Brad’s growing feelings for Jen helped ease his pain and back in March, he took great pains to arrange a secret meeting in NYC’s Central Park for Jen, himself, and his daughters Shiloh and Zahara. “One week in late March, I overheard security saying that Brad was meeting with [Jen] in Central Park before going to see Angelina on the set,” former Waldorf-Astoria employee Anna Kowalski tells In Touch. “He took Shiloh and Zahara in the car with him.” The whole thing was very carefully planned, says an insider, with Brad driven to a location near the Mount Sinai School of Medicine on 5th Avenue, where he met Jen at her SUV in the park. No doubt it was nerve-wracking. At the time, the last thing he wanted was for Angelina to find out he’d introduced Jen to their children. But for the formerly married couple, it was well worth it. “Zahara was asleep in the car with the driver, so Jen only got to talk with Shiloh,” says a friend of the actress, who adds that during the 20-minute meeting, Jen was moved to tears seeing her ex-husband’s adorable daughter. “She said that all that had happened in their past seemed to melt away that day,” says the friend, who adds that after the meeting, Jen remarked that she’s “proud of Brad and thinks he’s a great dad.” Even though Brad wasn’t happy with the way his life was going with Angelina, the friend says, Jen said, “at least he had this beautiful little girl.” And for Jen, who had been trying for children with Brad when they were married, that was a lot.