Terrence Howard Admits Hitting Ex-Wife: "I Lost My Mind and Slapped Her In Front of the Kids"

Howard has faced numerous allegations of violent public outbursts and domestic assault of his ex-wives.

Terrence Howard has faced numerous allegations of violence against his two ex-wives, and now, he's admitting to hitting at least one of them.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Howard expresses contrition for a 2001 incident during which he allegedly punched his first wife, Lori McCommas.

"She was talking to me real strong, and I lost my mind and slapped her in front of the kids," Howard, who was arrested following the incident, tells the magazine. "Her lawyer said it was a closed fist, but even slapping her was wrong." (The police report also notes that Howard "punched her twice with a closed fist.")

As for his second wife, Michelle Ghent, Howard was accused (in a lawsuit she filed) of beating her severely in 2013 in Costa Rica.

According to the lawsuit, Howard "followed [Ghent] into the restroom of the rental house and punched her on the left side of her face. [Howard] also grabbed [her] by her neck and pushed her against the bathroom wall and strangled her for several seconds."

Howard responds to these allegations as well in the Rolling Stone interview. "She was trying to Mace me," Howard explains, "and you can't see anything so all you can do is try to bat somebody away, and I think that something caught her. But I wasn't trying to hit her."

Howard's relationship with his current wife, Mira Pak, also appears to be conflicted. Pak — the mother of Howard's son Qirin — is present and affectionate throughout most of the interview, and Howard remarks of their relationship, "When you meet your one, it's completely balanced … I've got a good wife." Strangely, Pak reportedly separated from Howard in 2014 and earlier this year, filed for a divorce, which is expected to be finalized soon.

Beyond the idiosyncrasies of his love life, Howard also reveals his obsession with a new form of logic that he calls Terryology, based on his belief that one times one equals two, not one — a theory that the article doesn't explain.

As part of his pursuit of the truths of Terryology, Howard builds "fantastical plastic assemblages ... in two dimensions and three, tied together by copper wire or held in place by magnets." Of these works, Howard remarks, "We're about to show a new truth. The true universal math. And the proof is in these pieces. I have created the pieces that make up the motion of the universe. We work on them about 17 hours a day. She [Pak] cuts and puts on the crystals. I do the main work of soldering them together. They tell the truth from within."

But for all his eccentricities and the conflicts — some apparently violent — that seem to shape many of his encounters with the world, Howard remains a believer that he is finding his way to something greater than the sum of all the struggle in his life.

"As a result of the travesties I've gone through, I have become awakened," Howard says. "I mean, after spending time with me, you can see a good part of my nature. I'm on my own path, and I like the pebbles of my cobblestones."