A man claiming to be Chris Watts' gay lover says he wants to visit the family killer in prison even though the murderer is a "monster".
Watts, 33, was spared the death penalty and jailed for life after he admitted killing his pregnant wife Shanann and their daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three.
Investigators believe he killed his family - later dumping the girls in oil tanks and burying his wife in a shallow grave - because he wanted to start a new life with a mistress from work.
But Trent Bolte claims he was in a sexual relationship with Watts, and the pair had planned to move in together during a 10-month love affair.
Mr Bolte, 29, told US TV newsmagazine Inside Edition he wants to visit Watts in prison and hopes the killer will add his name to the visitation list.
Mr Bolte said: “Once, just for closure for me. After that, I don’t want anything to do with him.
"It’s not like I’m still in love with him, but I still view him as the Chris that I knew.”
Watts smothered his daughters and strangled Shanann, who was 15 weeks pregnant with a boy she planned to call Nico, at the family's home in Frederick, Colorado, in August.
Within hours he had dumped their bodies at the oil production site where he worked and met his mistress just weeks earlier, and claimed that they were missing.
He went on TV appealing for their safe return, but police quickly identified him as a suspect and within days charged him with murdering the trio and unlawfully terminating the pregnancy.
Shanann would have turned 35 on Thursday and it is believed she was due to give birth to the couple's third child in January or February.
Mr Bolte claims he was having a secret affair with Watts and they had looked at houses so they could move in together.
He said: “I was in the process of moving out of where I was staying. I was planning on getting a two-bedroom apartment, but Chris was like, 'No, I’m going to be divorced. We need to look at three-bedroom houses and the girls can have a room'."
At the time of the murders, Watts and his wife were still living together and had not filed for divorce.
Watts had grown distant and cold, and indicated he did not want another baby, while Shanann desperately tried to save their marriage, according to court documents.
Calling Watts a "monster", Mr Bolte claims the pair hooked up through the dating app MeetMe in May 2017.
He claims Shanann may have found his underwear in Watts' truck last spring.