British teen, Alex Batty, breaks silence, reveals letter he left mom night he ran away

The British boy who was thought to have been kidnapped by his mother and grandfather during a vacation in Spain broke his silence Thursday, revealing the heartbreaking note he left his family before he reemerged after six years.

Alex Batty, now 17, detailed the moment he decided to leave his family in their French home and how he survived on his own over the last several years.

“It was a normal day and I just decided ‘ok it’s time to leave,’” Batty, sitting next to his grandmother in the UK, told the Sun.

Batty, who was 11 years old when he vanished, says he had gotten into an argument with his mother, Melanie, and escaped their French Pyrenees accommodation they had moved into a day before in Sept. 2017.

“We had a stupid argument about nothing,” Batty told the website. “My mum can argue about anything so it doesn’t take much. She is very set in her views.”

Batty said the fight was the last straw, as he had gotten tired of the hippie “pain in the ass” lifestyle his mother had forced onto him.

Batty then planned his escape, packing a small bag with clothes that he felt was necessary while he kept a low profile with his family, and wrote a note to his mother on Dec. 11, 2017.

“Hey mum I want you to know I love you very much,” read the note, which was obtained by the Sun. “I am very thankful for the life that you provided for me over the past few years.”

“Don’t worry about yourselfs I am sure you won’t get found. Don’t worry about me either, you know I can take care of myself. I love you very much, don’t be too mad with me. -Love Alex.”

The trio was last seen together at the Port of Malaga on Oct. 8 – but never returned to the UK, BBC reported.

Batty felt he had a rough relationship with his mother after she split with his father when he was only 2 years old.

“She’s a good person. But she’s just not a great mom. Plain and simple, to be honest,” Batty told the website. “She just doesn’t do motherly things that you’re supposed to do.

“She’s not very warm and open. She doesn’t really listen much to anyone. She’s set in her ways. You can’t really change her beliefs or anything and that’s just a pain in the a to deal with.”

Batty’s decision to leave came after feeling his mother’s way of living wouldn’t allow him to have a good future, saying she had strong views of “anti-government, anti-vax” and believed most people were “slaves.”

While he shared his many reservations about his mother, Batty said he had nothing but love for his grandfather, David, 67, who filled a hole left by the absence of his father.

“I love my grandad. I never knew my dad so my grandad and step-grandad have both raised me. Grandad Batty is a great guy,” he told the outlet. “He’s just a lot more like your grandfather should be, teaching you lessons and listening to me.”

While he was on the run, the teen feared his mother and grandfather could get into legal trouble, so he came up with another plan to throw police “off his scent.”

“I’ve been lying to try and protect my mum and grandad but I realize that they’re probably gonna get caught anyway,” Batty said. “I pretended I had been on such a long journey for that reason.”

He lived off the name Zack Edwards and claimed to be a “very competent walker” knowing directions, while part of his plot was to say he had gotten lost finding the French commune of Quillan.

Batty was discovered by a delivery driver in Southern France walking across a bridge in the middle of the night, in a downpour on Dec. 13.

The driver, Fabien Accidini, allowed Batty to use his Facebook account to message his grandmother, Susan Caruana, who is his legal guardian.

Caruana later told the press that she believed Melanie and David took Batty because they had a “different belief system.”

He was placed into a foster home for two days before being brought to Toulouse, a city located in southern France, where he was met by his other grandfather before flying back to the UK, sans passport.

Now that Batty is back in the UK with his grandmother, he has plans for his new life saying he wants to go to college while continuing to study the French language.

“I want to do computer science or cyber security or blockchain development so I’m going to be very busy studying and catching up on things.”