The disturbing true story of a Midwestern couple who adopted a girl with a rare form of dwarfism and later accused her of lying about her age is the basis for Hulu’s new, compelling crime drama Good American Family. Learn more about Natalia Grace’s story and the disputes that have arisen between her and her previous adoptive family by reading on.

Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass play Kristine and Michael Barnett, the couple who adopted Natalia, played by Imogen Faith Reid, in Katie Robbins’ Good American Family. Using a variety of viewpoints, the series examines the family’s divergent versions of what transpired.

According to the official synopsis, “mistrust surrounds her age and background as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, and they gradually begin to suspect she may not be who she says she is.” “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, while they defend their family from the daughter they have come to believe is a threat.”

You may wonder what happened to Natalia Grace as you watch the series, including the abuse claims made by both sides, why Barnetts thought she was hiding something, and the current situation.

Does Hulu’s Good American Family have a true storyline?

Indeed, Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian girl with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SEDc), a rare form of dwarfism, is the real-life inspiration for Hulu’s new series Good American Family. It is a “rare genetic disorder that results in short stature and skeletal anomalies that primarily affect the spine and long bones of the arms and legs,” according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A couple from New Hampshire adopted Natalia from Ukraine in 2008. But the Indiana Court of Appeals claims that in 2010, she was placed back on the adoption list. She was adopted that same year by a 45-year-old Indiana couple named Kristine Elizabeth Barnett and a 43-year-old Michael Barnett. She was thought to have moved into their Indiana home when she was six or seven years old.How long had the Barnetts been suspicious of Natalia?

Natalia’s age repeatedly raised suspicions among the Barnetts. Michael recalled in the three-season documentary series on Investigation Discovery that Kristine was surprised to see Natalia’s full pubic hair when she gave her her first bath in their new house. He also asserted that Natalia acknowledged concealing bloody underwear and having a period.

According to Time.com, he also claimed that within six months of moving in with them, Natalia would attempt to urinate on her younger brother Ethan, feces in the car, and smear the waste on him. She was also accused of hiding knives in her bedroom and stealing her brothers’ toys tossing them into the street. The family’s most grave charge against Natalia, though, was that she threatened to murder them while they were asleep.

Kristine allegedly caught Natalia attempting to contaminate her coffee with cleaning solution in another incident that was reenacted in Good American Family. Natalia, however, asserted in the documentary series that Kristine staged the poisoning herself. Her adoptive mother allegedly mistreated her as well. She claimed that Kristine pepper-sprayed her eyes, hit her with a belt, and gave her three times the recommended dosage of a prescription drug, according to People.

“I feel compelled to defend myself by asking myself, ‘Do I appear to be capable of pushing someone twice my size into a fence?'” Do I appear to be able to hold a knife? Natalia uttered those words. The Barnetts seem to have brainwashed me. Kristine gave me advice on how to make up my age and claim that I attempted to kill my parents. Why would you subject your child to that?

What Caused the Age Change of Natalia Grace?

Two years after Natalia was adopted, the Barnetts filed a petition with the Marion County Probate Court to legally raise her age to 22. In an Indiana Court of Appeals document obtained by TODAY, the court changed her birth year from 2003 to 1989 “based on age estimates provided by a primary care physician and social worker.”

With their three sons, the Barnetts relocated to Canada in 2013, leaving Natalia living alone in a Lafayette apartment. Natalia offered an alternative viewpoint in the documentary series, despite their assertion that they assisted her by “obtaining federal disability benefits and supportive services to help her transition to life as an adult,” according to the Indiana Court of Appeals. According to Time.com, she claimed that she had no phone to call for assistance and disclosed that the apartment was not completely accessible, preventing her from reaching the stove, shelves, or mailbox.

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After living alone for over a month, Natalia made friends with Cynthia Mans, a neighbor, after she was spotted sitting on a sidewalk. Cynthia extended an invitation to Natalia to live with her, her husband, Antwon Mans, a Christian pastor, and their ten kids. In 2023, Natalia was formally adopted by them.

As demonstrated in the last, third season of the ID documentary series, Grace eventually left the Manses’ house with the help of her current guardians, Nicole and Vincent DePaul, a dwarf couple from New York.

What Charges Did the Barnetts Face?

Michael and Kristine were accused of neglecting a dependent on several occasions in 2019. A five-year investigation later, Michael was found not guilty on three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent in October 2022. All of the accusations against Kristine were dropped in March 2023.

Is Natalia a child or an adult, then?

A DNA test by the medical laboratory TruDiagnostic disproved allegations that Natalia was impersonating an adult, as disclosed in the Investigation Discovery documentary series. According to the test, she is about 22 years old, meaning that when Michael and Kristine adopted her, she was about 9. “This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match,” Natalia said.

In a subsequent episode of the documentary series, she faced her ex-adoptive father, Michael, who asserted that Kristine had also mistreated and manipulated him. (In February 2014, he filed for her divorce.)

“The same monster you had was mine. I was minimalized, severely controlled, denigrated, and threatened; everything that was me was torn away, and I was led and told to be precisely what she desired me to be,” he disclosed.

Despite not appearing in the documentary series, Kristine responded to the accusations in a Facebook post on January 4, 2024, CBS8 reports.

“Natalia was a cherished and well-loved family member. None of the people in my family mistreated her. “Let us immediately address these accusations,” Kristine wrote. “The claims that Natalia was ‘beaten’ are blatantly untrue, and no one ever gave her a belt. Natalia received very little discipline, which was within the parameters of typical parenting. We all loved Natalia while she lived with us and felt a great deal of sympathy for her, so if anything, it was too permissive.”

Despite admitting that she had “good and bad days as a mom,” Kristine maintained that Natalia’s charges had previously been “investigated” and “dismissed as unfounded.”

Living with Natalia did come with ongoing accusations regarding her treatment, which I think served to divert attention from looking into her extreme personal behaviors, most of which were sexual in nature or hurtful to other people. Therefore, the claims of abuse are a means of diverting attention from the fact that she is actively harming others, and they also harm others,” she added. In addition to neighbors, teachers, and even kids, she has accused everyone who has had frequent contact with her of abusing her. According to my observations, none of them were mistreating her.

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