The divorce and custody battle has been going on since 2001. That would surely give a father of good will time to master the learning curve about being a non-primary custodial dad and still getting along reasonably with his child.
If you have never been in a custody battle, you may not recognize the signs — that for the more abusive parent, the battle is to patch the ego and deny publicly that one is abusive. Abusers often use highly abusive tactics to try to accomplish this goal, and are often quite impervious to therapy, reason or any legitimate concern for the child. The concern is aimed at denying the reality of the abuse. Sometimes the only way to fight a dirty fighter is to land one below the belt. At which point the dirty fighter will behave as if this is the only blow that has ever been landed — and that he is the victim. We have yet to hear any credible repentance from this guy, just excuses and damage control.
This is all rumor, supposition and gossip. The courts are already involved, the choices and outcomes are fixed there and not in the public arena.
This whole explosion is about celebrities behaving badly, but its us that are behaving badly for not recognizing this is a private matter between these people.
Its funny that this whole matter should come up this weekend of all weekends when the Torah portion deals directly with the horror and spreading tales and innuendo.
You would reject the next piece of psycho-babble as a justification for doing evil, but in this, good people seem to feel justified in all sorts of transgressions.