I have no idea how you could just walk out on your children and not have any contact with them. I go insane if I don't see/talk to my kids every single day. I guess it is just some people, both men and women, who can be this selfish.
But I truely believe that a single parent can raise kids as loved as a kid raised with two, sometimes better if the parents relationship is strained and they stay together for the sake of the kids.