Alex Batty is opening up about his life living on the run with his mother since 2017. The now-17-year-old English teen was just 11 when he went missing while on a vacation in Spain in 2017. He was with his mother and grandfather at the time. On December 13, 2023, the missing teen turned up on a roadside in France in the middle of the night. A delivery driver picked him up and took him to French police after looking up his name and realizing that he'd been missing. Now, Alex is opening up about his life for the last six years and why he finally decided to leave.
"I've been lying to try and protect my mum and grandad but I realize that they're probably gonna get caught anyway," Alex told The Sun in an interview. "I didn't get lost. I knew exactly where I was going.”
Neither Alex's mother, 43-year-old Mekanie Batty, nor his grandfather, 64-year-old David Batty, had custody of him when they went on vacation in 2017.
He told authorities that he decided to leave his mom after finding out she was planning to move them to Finland. He realized that living on the run with her "wasn't a great way to live for my future” and was tired of not staying in the same place for more than a few months. "She's a great person and I love her but she's just not a great mum," he shared.
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Alex is now living with his grandmother in Oldham, in northern England. “Alex and his family remain our focus," Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes explained in a statement. "We still have some work to do in establishing the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance and where he has been."
