No one can conclusively say that he’s never physically abused her. He was constantly under the influence of hard drugs and alcohol. Who knows what he was capable of during those benders.
I mean, he wrote about burning her for gods sake! Who talks like that?? A very very disturbed person. That’s not “dark humor” to me, it’s frightening and deranged.
Btw, I truly believe they were BOTH toxic and abusive to one another.
I took that as figuratively not literal. He wanted to prove his point in court and if she wanted to fight, he was going to take her down. In most of the recordings you can hear him trying to calm and deescalate the situation. And trying to get away from her.
With all his relationships he seems to fall fast including the recent Russian girl who apparently lived with him, they talked about marriage. She didn't like the attention she was getting from the UK trial so she ended it.