Alex Batty, a British boy who was found in France after going missing for six years, says it feels \u201csurreal\u201d to be back with his grandmother in the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n
In an interview with The Sun newspaper published Thursday, Batty \u2013 who is now 17 \u2013 said: \u201cEvery time I go to sleep, I feel like I\u2019m gonna be waking up back in France. It\u2019s not really kicked in yet that I am back in England.\u201d <\/p>\n
The teenager spoke of the six years he spent living in Spain and France after he was taken on holiday by his mother and grandfather in 2017 and didn\u2019t return. <\/p>\n
He said that for the first few years away from home, it was like a \u201cvacation,\u201d as he spent most of his time \u201creading, drawing, (and) going to the beach.\u201d <\/p>\n
After he turned 14, however, Batty said that he \u201cstarted needing to pick up (his) own slack\u201d to pay for food and rent by working in construction, demolition and decoration. He said around this time, he began to start thinking about leaving for England. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started weighing up the pros and the cons from each lifestyle and, after a couple of months of contemplation, I realised England was definitely the way forward,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the past few years, I could envision my future few years and it just wasn\u2019t the way forward (that) was best for my future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Batty said he had a \u201cnon-existent social life\u201d while living with his mother and grandfather, saying he only made one friend during the six years abroad. <\/p>\n
The teenager said when he decided to leave France to try to reach England, he wrote a note for his mother. \u201c(I) told her how much I loved her, how much I appreciated what she had done for me. I didn\u2019t want her to worry about me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He took a warm jacket, his skateboard, and some money for food, and left in the \u201cpitch black\u201d night, where it was \u201craining quite a lot.\u201d He said he traveled at night, sleeping as little as he could, and in well-lit areas for his safety. <\/p>\n
Now back in England, Batty said he is \u201cvery happy\u201d and \u201chealthy.\u201d He said he still loves his mother and grandfather and doesn\u2019t want them to worry about him. <\/p>\n
\u201cSorry for leaving but it was necessary for my future,\u201d he said, addressing them in a video posted to The Sun\u2019s website. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can take care of myself so you don\u2019t have to worry about any of that,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n
Alex Batty, a British boy who was found in France after going missing for six years, says it feels \u201csurreal\u201d to be back with his grandmother in the United Kingdom. In an interview with The Sun newspaper published Thursday, Batty \u2013 who is now 17 \u2013 said: \u201cEvery time I go to sleep, I feel <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}