Speed 2 star Jason Patric seems like a cross between a basket case and violent bully whose acrimonious—bordering on ludicrous (he’s suing for custody of a child for whom he was a sperm donor)—paternity suit has him allegedly teaching phrases to the child like, “Mommy has a stinky vagina.”
Patric launched a media campaign last year to tell the world that he was a victim of parental alienation and that his ex-girlfriend had all but kidnapped their son. Inspired by his legal battle, he started a nonprofit foundation Stand Up for Gus, which turned into a sort of cause célèbre, raising nearly $300,000 for legal counsel for other parents seeking custody of their kids.
However, Patric’s ex Danielle Schreiber—in her first in-depth interview since Patric brought their private battle into the public spotlight—paints a very different portrait of what is going on with the actor, alleging that he’s a physically abusive, unstable, anti-semitic hothead.
First of all, Patric had merely donated his sperm to Schreiber after they broke up. She tells Rolling Stone that she always intended on being a single mother and that it’s ridiculous for the state to step in and question that choice and tell her that her child needs a father.
“Single mothers are not incomplete equations,” says Schreiber. To say otherwise “violates my civil rights. Think of the stigma of being a single mom, and the way people are threatened by it. It’s associated with a woman who’s financially dependent on the state, sexually irresponsible, maybe promiscuous. Or I’m seen as someone in the default position waiting to complete my family. But all I’m doing is trying to protect the family structure that I have.”
She also says that Patric has never paid child support, and prior to filing his paternity suit in 2012 when her son Gus was three, Patric had “never owned a crib or a car seat, changed Gus’ diaper, bathed the child, nor had Gus sleep over at his home without [her].”
The couple dated off and on for several years in what sounds like a volatile, unhealthy relationship in which he would allegedly put his hands on her and then later play emotional mind games.
In September 2005, after Schreiber upset Patric, she claims he used force against her for the first time, grabbing her wrists and pushing her toward a wall in his Santa Monica home, which resulted in Schreiber slamming her head. “The next morning, Jason called me and told me he loved me, for the first time,” she says.
Patric was sports-betting and drinking, even peeing on a dresser and another time in a closet at his New York home. She claims Patric threw a jar of almond butter at her when he found she hadn’t put on the lid tight, and hit her in the face with a land-line phone, causing contusions and bruises that lasted more than a week.
Patric fracturing his hand when he punched a wall during one of their fights.
Eventually he started seeing another woman and they broke up. In 2008, when she was 35, Schreiber decided she wanted to have a baby and bought and banked sperm. But two days before her first insemination, Patric, who had caught wind of her plans, sent her a 29-page handwritten letter
“There is no doubt in my mind that you were meant to be a mother,” he says, adding that he is sorry he can’t be her child’s father. But he is willing to give her his sperm. “I have to find my way,” he writes. “It’s only then that I can give to anybody. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a dad.… I want you to know that if you want to use my sperm, you have my blessing. It’s all I can give you right now.”
She took him up on the offer and became pregnant through artificial insemination. He was not involved with her pregnancy nor was he present at her child’s birth in 2009.
Then, in what would later prove to be a particularly messy move, Patric and Schreiber rekindled their relationship in 2011.
[H]e turned nasty on her again, hurling anti-Semitic epithets like “Ms. Jew Schreiber” and “Jew cunt” at her. (According to an e-mail obtained by Rolling Stone that appears to be from Patric, he commented, “FUCK THOSE JEW MOTHERFUCKERS,” while discussing a business issue with Schreiber.)
The reunion only lasted a few months before she broke it off. Patric then filed a paternity suit against her and insisted on shared custody and that Gus’s last name be changed to his. When she wouldn’t agree, he decided to take their case to trial.
In November 2013, Schreiber was awarded a domestic-violence restraining order against Patric after a judge found that he’d harassed her. He’s also been accused of harassing her friends and family, repeatedly contacting them.
Patric has turned to the media, making appearances on Today, Fox News, The View, holding press conferences, a star-studded red carpet event and posting YouTube videos from a little boy’s bedroom purported to be his son’s. (Schreiber says the furnishings, toys and decor in the room were purchased only after he filed a paternity suit.)