Did you just admit to committing domestic violence without a sense of regret?

" See my former wife, who I loved dearly, would sometimes “fly off the handle” too. She’d even slap me. And once, I slapped back. Hard. On the back of her head, the way an unruly soldier may be slapped on the back of the head in a war movie. She was hurt, and it was awful. I never wanted to allow myself to be slapped by anyone, out of principle. At the same time, the act of “hitting a woman” is incredibly loaded. Is it okay, ever? Had she written an op-ed about ‘abuse’ or shared the story to other people, it may have changed people’s perceptions of me. For better or worse. She didn’t, however. She kept it to herself. Because she knows people are nuanced and complex, as are situations, and “the public” has no patience or talent for nuance."