The real story of Natalia Grace, an alleged orphan adopted by a Midwestern couple who later accused her of lying about her age is about to be told in Hulu’s new true crime drama Good American Family.
The series is one of the most peculiar true crime dramas to cross our small screens in a while, and is a true story about a family who allege they adopted a violent adult who was posing as a child. Here’s everything we know about the chilling true story of Natalia Grace.
Is ‘Good American Family’ Based On A True Story?
Good American Family is directed by Katie Robbins and stars Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass as Kristine and Michael Barnett, the Midwestern couple who adopted Natalia, here played by Imogen Faith read. The story explores the conflicting accounts given by Natalia and her adoptive family through multiple perspectives.
“As they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is,” the official synopsis reads. “As they defend their family from the daughter they’ve grown to believe is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.”
Is ‘Good American Family’ Based On A True Story?
Yes. Hulu’s Good American Family is inspired by the true story of Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian girl who was diagnosed with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SEDc) a rare form of dwarfism. This type of dwarfism results in skeletal abnormalities limited to the spine, with long bones in the arms and legs.
In 2008, a New Hampshire couple adopted Natalia. But, she was relisted for adoption in 2010 after her first adoptive family waved their parental rights citing “disruptive behaviour” according to People. This is when Indiana couple Kristine Elizabeth Barnett, 45 and Michael Barnett, 43 adopted her. She was six or seven years old when she moved in with her new family.
Kristine Barnett was a speaker circuit star. The Barnett’s son Jacob was a precocious physics wiz with autism who had garnered attention for his excellent school performance. In Good American Family, Barnett is framed as seeing Natalia Grace as a promising new “project.” By 2012 the family successfully applied to have Natalia Grace’s age changed from 8 to 22 and had moved her to an apartment to live on her own.
Why Did The Barnett Family Believe Natalia Grace Was An Adult?
The Barnett’s soon started to have suspicions about Natalia Grace’s age – suspicions that have been documented in a three part Investigation Discovery docuseries. Her adoptive father Michael recalled his wife giving Natalia her first bath and being shocked to see she had public hair. He also claimed his adopted daughter admitted to getting her period and hiding her bloody underwear.
While the Barnett’s were suspicious about Natalia’s age, they soon had bigger concerns. Natalia Grace started exhibiting behavioural issues associated with antisocial personality disorder. She would try to urinate on her six year old sibling Ethan, defecated in their car and smeared waste on her younger brother. The family allege she threw her brother’s toys out into the street and hid knives in her bedroom.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the limit of Grace’s behavioural problems. Grace’s adoptive mother Kristine allegedly caught her trying to poison her morning coffee with cleaning fluid and that Grace threatened to kill the family while they were sleeping.
The Barnett family petitioned the Marion County Probate Court to have Natalia Grace’s birth year legally changed in 2012. A detective agreed that her birth certificate looked fake, and her birth year was changed from 2003 to 1989.
She was forced to live on her own in an apartment she alleges was never made accessible to her. Grace couldn’t reach the stove, shelves or mailbox and was not provided with a phone.
After a month of living alone a neighbour, Cynthia Mans, adopted her. She had taken Natalia in to live with her husband Antwon, a Christian pastor, and their 10 children and the couple formally adopted her in 2023. According to People the Grace ran away six months later accusing the family of “controlling her and forbidding her from contacting outsiders.”
What Has The Real Natalia Grace Said?
Grace has denied this and alleged her adoptive mother staged the poisoning herself and said Kristine was physically abusive, hitting her pelts, pepper spraying her in the eyes and giving her triple the recommended doses of medications.
“I feel like I have to defend myself and be like, ‘Do I look like somebody that could push someone twice my size into a fence? Do I look like I could even grip a knife?” she said in interview with People. Natalia Grace has alleged that the Barnett’s were inspired by the 2009 horror movie Orphan in which a couple adopt a sociopathic adult woman with a rare form of dwarfism who poses as a child before attempting to seduce the husband and murder his wife. There are some uncanny parallels.
Grace alleged in the interview that the Barnett’s “brainwashed’ her and coached her to lie about her age and told the world she had tried to murder them.
In 2019, Michael and Kristine were charged with multiple counts of neglecting a dependent. Michael Barnett was acquitted in October 2022 and the charges against Kristine were dropped in March 2023.
Was Natalia Grace Actually A Child?
The docu-series shows that following genetic testing undertaken by medical lab TruDiagnostic showed Natalia was, in fact, a child when the Barnett’s adopted her. Further investigation by a prosecuter tracked down Natalia Grace’ birth records in Ukraine, which supported the claim she was born in 2003.
Her birth year was changed back to 2003 making Natalia Grace 22 years old today and 9 at the time the Barnett’s adopted her.
Michael Barnett filed for divorce from his wife in February 2014. He said in the docuseries that he was manipulated by her. “I was exceptionally controlled and put down and threatened,” he alleged. “I was guided and instructed to be exactly what she [Kristine Barnett] wanted me to be.”
Where Is Natalia Grace Now?
Natalia Grace relocated to Nicole and Vince DePaul’s house with the help of a boyfriend she met through Facebook. She now lives with the couple. The now-22 year old has been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder a condition characterised by “unexplained withdrawal, fear, sadness or irritability.” Currently, Grace is studying for her GED in the hopes of becoming a school teacher and planning surgeries that will help her live with her disabilities. “It’s a blessing to be alive today because looking back at my 7-year-old self, I should have been dead,” she told People.
How Has Kristine Barnett Responded To Allegations
Kristine Barnett has not addressed the the fact that her belief Natalia Grace was an adult when she was adopted have been proven false.
She has, however, addressed and denied Natalia Grace’s claims of abuse. On January 4, 2024 she wrote in a Facebook post:
“Natalia was a very much loved and cared for member of my family. She was not abused by anyone in my family,” she wrote. She described discipline Natalia experienced as minimal and if anything “overly permissive” explaining the family felt sympathy for Natalia and loved her.
She said she had “good and bad days as a mom” but said all of Grace’s claims had been investigated and dismissed alleging that Natalia Grace has a pattern of accusing “anyone who has had longterm contact with her as well as neighbours, teachers and even children” of abuse.
“I believe [this] was to lead people away from investigating her personal behaviours which were extreme and usually of some sort of sexual or hurtful to towards others nature. So the accusations of being abused are a way to deflect what she is actively doing to hurt other people and as well they themselves hurt other people,” she continued.
Where To Watch ‘Good American Family’ In Australia
Good American Family is available to watch in Australia via Disney+.
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