Living hundreds of miles away, Tabitha now sees her children only every 6 weeks

Soon began a relationship with Colt, and pair are now married

When she moved out, her youngest child was only 19 months old

A motherof 12 branded ‘despicable’ for walking out on her children to live with a new boyfriend insisted last night: ‘They are better off without me.’

Tabitha Nimes, 39, left her family to live 260 miles away and has now remarried.

Last week her former husband Peter Saunders, 47, condemned her for abandoning the children, aged 19 months to 22 years.

But Mrs Nimes claims the marriage had disintegrated and was ‘upsetting the children’.

Tabitha Nimes, who left her family of 12 kids to be with her toyboy lover, says they are better off without her

Peter Saunders at home with all 12 of his children whose ages range from 22 years down to just 19 months

She said yesterday: ‘I know everybody thinks I’m an awful mum, but I walked out because Pete and I were arguing all the time.

‘It wasn’t good for the children and it made them upset. Pete’s a good dad – they’re better off without me.’

Mrs Nimes, who says she lived mostly on benefits, claims she was suffering from post-natal depression at her former home in Rhyl, North Wales, and now only sees her children every six weeks. ‘I know the little ones sometimes want their mum, but they seem to be getting on well,’ she said.

‘I want to see them more, but I don’t want to cause any more family arguments. I’m trying to do what’s best for them while living my own life too.’ She and her ex-husband married in 1996 and had Rhiannon, 18, Ben, 16, Jack, 14, Josh, 13, Adam, 12, Blake, ten, Rhys, nine, Lillie, seven, Peter, six, Aston, three, and 19-month-old Beth.

Mrs Nimes also has a 22- year-old son, Matthew, from a previous relationship.

The mother, who married 32-year-old security guard Colt Nimes in March, said: ‘I loved being surrounded by babies.

‘I’d do the night feeds while Peter would take them to the park. Peter would do the school run while I did the housework and helped with homework.’

Tabitha has now married Cole, who works as a security guard, ending her 18 year marriage to Peter, and rarely sees her children

Peter Saunders pictured with his ex-wife Tabitha with and youngest child Beth

But she said the marriage was doomed, adding: ‘I suffered from post-natal depression and sometimes felt really down.

‘Juggling my marriage and my kids became exhausting. I wanted to lock myself away, but when I tried to tell Peter I wasn’t coping, he didn’t understand.

‘I felt he was controlling. The relationship gradually broke down and we started arguing about everything.’

In 2012, she met Mr Nimes, had another baby with Mr Saunders, and then moved from Wales to Hastings, East Sussex, with the new man in her life.

The full interview appears in CLOSER magazine out today

At first, she took Aston and Beth with her because they were ‘too young to be without their mum’. She added: ‘It broke my heart leaving the other kids, but I couldn’t uproot them and I didn’t want to cause arguments.

‘Peter’s a good dad, and I knew the kids would be happy staying where they were. I didn’t tell them where I was going, but Pete told them I’d left and they seemed to cope.’

She then returned the two youngest children to their father. ‘I didn’t want to go through a custody battle,’ she said. ‘I decided I needed a clean break and felt it was best for them too.’

Last June she and Mr Nimes moved to Southampton and were married nine months later. Now living in Pontypridd, South Wales, Mrs Nimes only sees her children every four to six weeks, and has missed Christmas with them and several birthday celebrations.

In an interview with Closer magazine, she said: ‘It’s upsetting seeing the kids and then having to leave them.

‘When I can, I visit and take them to the park, and last weekend we went shopping.

‘It’s hard. I miss not knowing what they’ve been up to at school, and they don’t run to hug me any more because I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like.’

Last week Mrs Nimes’s ex-husband, a convicted drug dealer who has not worked for more than a decade and receives £2,000 in benefits every month, said: ‘I don’t think the kids will ever forget what she has done.

‘It’s despicable – walking out on the whole family and leaving me to do it all on my own...how a mum can do that to her kids is beyond me.’

Their daughter Rhiannon, who is pregnant, said: ‘I’ll always love Mum but I’ll never forgive her for walking out on us … I’ve asked Dad to be my birthing partner instead.

‘I’m determined not to make the same mistakes that Mum made. I hope in time she has a change of heart and makes more effort to be there for us.’

Her mother added: ‘Sometimes I think I’m a bad mum, but I wouldn’t change what I’ve done.

‘I know my older kids are angry with me, but I love them all to pieces … I did this for them as well as myself.’