Mum whose kids live with dad replaces them with eerie dolls that will 'never leave her'

A divorced mum spent thousands on eerie lifelike baby dolls to help her cope after her kids left to live with their dad.

Having built a whole room to 'nurse' them she said that the dolls comfort her and added: "I know they will never leave me."

Liz Watson, 42, from Virginia, US, has been a self-proclaimed 'reborn' mum since 2016, after discovering the hobby online and in YouTube videos.

Reborn baby dolls are made from silicone and vinyl and are created to mimic real human babies.

After a complicated divorce from husband Steve in January 2010, she eventually made the decision in February 2013 to move.

She left with her two oldest children from that marriage to a different part of the country to live with her new husband, Jeff, and their shared daughter Journey.

Her children struggled with the move and so Liz made the heartbreaking decision to let them move back to their father's house in Kansas, US, in June 2016.

But after this she felt a sense of loss and anxiety about how much of her children's lives she would miss out on.

So she entered the world of reborn baby dolls, and her collection began, buying her first doll in December 2016 - just five months after her children moved back in with her ex-husband.

Now, she is the proud mum to nine reborn baby dolls who all have their own names: Juniper Anne, Willa Jane, Nixon Grey, Benedict Arthur, Jax Ethan, Crevan Ridge, Paisley Rye, Isla Blu, and Oaklyn Elise.

Liz has dedicated an entire room in her house to a nursery for her reborn dolls which includes a crib, a wardrobe, a changing table, and shelving to store nappies, baby toiletries and accessories.

"Making the decision for [children] Dylan and Asher to live with their father was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made," said Liz.

"It was like giving my children up for adoption. In the back of my head, I had haunting thoughts like, 'Will they even remember that they spent half of their childhood living in my home?' and, 'Will my other two children remember the times we shared and grow up being close to their older brother and sister?'

"Every day it feels like death. Every day, I think about the moments that I've missed. It haunts me.

"It keeps me up late at night with panic attacks sometimes.

"The dolls really give me comfort because I connect them with the feelings I had of being a mother to my two older children when they were young.

"I know these dolls won't grow up, they won't get taken from me, a divorce will not affect my ability to care for them.

"I know they will never leave me."

Liz admitted that close friends and family find her reborn dolls unsettling, while others are shocked at how their bodies naturally react when touching the dolls.

"Most of my close friends and family know about my collection of reborn babies. Most of them think that it is a strange hobby and some even find them creepy," she said.

"However, everyone that spends a good amount of time with me can clearly see how happy they make me and they have accepted that they are a part of my life."