My father was a violent drinker and drove my mother out of our home. We children were so terrified of him that we could not say to anyone that we would be happier to be with her as we were interviewed in the very house he was in at the time - and although she was granted access to us in the divorce proceedings he would interrogate us afterwards and make our lives a misery.
My solution was to visit her on alternate Saturday afternoons on the QT, buy a pink on the way home, devour the info regarding the match and pretend that I attended the game.