Chris Watts’ mistress is in witness protection hundreds of miles from home and will be given a new name and identity, it has been reported.
Nichol Kessinger told police she had started an affair with Watts just a month before he killed his two daughters and wife at home in Greeley, Colorado.
She said it would be hard for her to go out in public ‘for years’ due to abuse and slander – and has now reportedly been offered protection.
Kessigner also told authorities in interview tapes that were obtained by DailyMail.com under a open records request that she had left the state of Colorado and started a new job.
She and Watts had been working together at the oil company Anadarko at the time of the murders.
Chris Watts’ mistress (left with Watts) is in witness protection hundreds of miles from home and will be given a new name and identity to protect her from trolls, it has been reported
In August, Watts (pictured with mistress Nikki) strangled his wife Shanann and smothered his two daughters at their home
In August, Watts strangled his wife Shanann.
He buried Shanann in shallow grave in a crude oil field where he worked and put Bella and Celeste in oil tanks.
They were found days later after he made a shifty television appearance claiming not to know where they were. He pleaded guilty in November and was handed five life sentences.
Kessinger told investigators that she and Watts began talking in late May or early June and began to have a sexual relationship a few weeks after that first encounter.
She also revealed that Watts told her his marriage was finished and his wife Shanann did not want to try and work things out with him, two claims that were later proven to be entirely false.
And while Watts did not hide the fact that he had two daughters, he did fail to mention that his wife was pregnant with a third child.
In one of their final conversations, Watts told Kessinger that the father of that child was another man, and acted surprised by the news as well, suggesting he was unaware at the time.
After the murders, Kessinger spoke with investigators for nearly two hours on August 16 at the Thornton Police Station after the murders
After the murders, Kessinger spoke with investigators for nearly two hours on August 16 at the Thornton Police Station.
She told officials that she decided to reach out herself to investigators after ending her relationship with Chris because of the lies he had been telling her for the past eight weeks.
Kessinger, 30, was incredibly candid and forthcoming with investigators, and brought along her father for the interview.
It was about an hour in however when she became emotional as the reality of the situation set in, breaking down twice in the span of just five minutes.
‘It’s not fair. It wasn’t fair to me in the first place, it wasn’t fair to her in the first place, it wasn’t fair to any of us in the first place, you know,’ Kessigner told investigators, referring to Watts’ lies.
‘It wasn’t fair to his family for him to have an affair, it wasn’t fair to me to have him lie to me and make me think that everything is going to plan. And still to this day, I don’t even know what’s a lie and what’s not.’
Kessinger (pictured with Watts), 30, was incredibly candid and forthcoming with investigators
She continued: ‘I don’t even know if they were like filing for divorce. I don’t know if they were putting the house up. I don’t even know. I don’t even know anymore what is real and what is not.’
Kessinger was then adamant about the fact that she never would have pursued a relationship or even agreed to date Watts had she known he was still with his wife.
‘I t’s like, you know, I’m gonna wake up every day and know that like this mom and her unborn child and these two little girls are not around anymore and it breaks my heart,’ said a tearful Kessinger.
Shanann and her daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, were murdered by her husband Chris in August. Shanann’s mother and father said in their interview that they still do not understand why they were killed
Chris Watts was arrested for strangling his wife Shanann and smothering his two daughters at their home in Greeley, Colorado
‘It is in me, and then I have to think about, like, the consequences of his actions and how they affect everybody else.’
She also worried about what would happen to her once she was revealed to be other woman.
‘My name is about to be like slandered, for probably a while. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to heal. but I would not be surprised if it’s gonna be hard to go out in public sometimes for a couple of years,’ she explained.
‘And that really hurts me. I’m just like, this is a horrible horrible thing. Like, how dare you, you know. And people aren’t gonna understand that. You know, they’re gonna say, ‘oh you know, you’re the woman that had an affair with this man who took out his whole family.’
Kessinger began to began to tear up as she spoke about the victims.
‘He’s so disgusting. I’m so ashamed of him and everything,’ said Kessinger.