Or, you know, whether he has returned or not (and dismissed his old beliefs or got over them), is orthogonal to whether he has the courage (or even the will) to apologize.

He can return, but don't feel comfortable to apologizing.

He can return, but feel like that's all behind and no apology is necessary, or that that was done by a different person.

And several other possible cases -- a lot of which don't leave out the possibility of having regretted it.

Like we can regret something in private and internally, the same holds true for famous people, artists etc. They are not moral playthings that the public has some right to demand of them public repentance and submission outside their creative roles.