Things have turned very ugly between Paula Patton and Robin Thicke.
The actress and the singer, who split way back in 2014, are still entangled in a legal mess as they battle over custody of their six-year old son, Julian.
On Thursday in Los Angeles, a judge denied Patton‘s request to limit Thicke’s access to Julian after she accused him of physical abuse.
Whoa there. Yikes.
“The judge denied all of Paula’s requests for custody,” an insider close to the matter tells People Magazine, adding:
“She wanted more custody because of her allegations of physical abuse, which are untrue and unfounded.”
Neither Thicke nor Patton have commented on this contentious issue or allegation.
But People has obtained legal documents in which Patton asserts she’s “become concerned about [Robin]’s drinking and drug use, as well as the forms of punishment he is using to discipline Julian” over the past year.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Thicke’s drinking and/or drug use.
The artist himself has admitted to a dependence on alcohol and pain pills in the past.
But he’s never said anything about laying hands on his young child in any kind of inappropriate fashion, of course.
Patton goes on to say that the six-year old actually showed her how Thicke spanked him, telling his mother that the experience “was worse than” a basic “ow,” after she made the latter noise.
According to the ongoing custody agreement, Thicke is permitted overnight visits with Julian every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The pair’s divorce was officially granted last March after a year-long separation.
The separation was initiated by Patton, but was almost taken as a joke at first by Thicke and the public.
He even performed a song at the 2014 BET Awards that was clearly meant to win Patton over.
“I’d like to dedicate this song to my wife, and say, ‘I miss you, and I’m sorry.’ This is called Forever Love,” Thicke said on stage at that event.
Alas, the reconciliation effort did not succeed.
Fast forward more than two years, and the issue at stake is no longer this romance; but the stars’ ability to co-parent in an amicable manner.
In his declaration, Thicke claims Paula “holds residual anger” towards him because he and his loved ones “would not permit her or her family” to attend the funeral of his late father, Alan Thicke.
Robin has told the court he thinks Patton only wanted to attend the ceremony in order to increase her “public exposure.”
Thicke does admit to the “very rare” use of “light spanking” as a “last resort” for punishment, yet insists he has “never exceeded age-appropriate discipline.”
However, Patton cites Julian’s teachers in her court filing, saying the child informed them he was “scared” of his dad as a result of the alleged spanking.
Patton alleges that Julian’s “behavior has become very concerning,” and that the child has “become very tense,” disappears into “what appears to be a trance” and has developed a “slight stutter.”
The infant’s school principal told Thicke that he filed a report with the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services after Julian made his accusations against the singer in class.
But this department has referred to its privacy policy in refusing to say anything about any kind of investigation.