Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. Discovery/Investigation Discovery
Topics: Mental Health, True crime, Natalia Grace, Health, Film and TV, Parenting
Liv Bridge
Topics: Mental Health, True crime, Natalia Grace, Health, Film and TV, Parenting
A girl whose adoptive parents accused her of being an adult has made some new shocking claims about the family.
Natalia Grace, who has a rare form of dwarfism, was born in Ukraine before she came to the US for adoption in 2003.
Kristine and Michael Barnett, from Indiana, adopted the youngster in 2010, however, the family successfully petitioned to Marion County court to change Natalia's birthdate to 1989 just two years later, citing the girl had public hair, adult teeth and was menstruating.
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The new birth record legally changed Natalia's age from eight to 22 overnight.
Natalia's unique story captured worldwide attention when the documentary about her adoption, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, hit our screens.
The documentary showed the Barnetts' claim the Ukrainian orphan was not a six-year-old child but an adult who was masquerading as a minor - and claimed Natalia had even tried to harm Kristine by poisoning her coffee and dragging her towards an electric fence.
The Barnetts eventually moved Natalia into an apartment to live by herself while they cut all contact with her and moved to Canada in 2013.
A DNA test in 2023 then estimated Natalia was about 22 years old, meaning she would've been around nine when her adoptive parents left her to her own devices.
Her adoptive family were then charged with neglect of a dependent but Michael was found not guilty and the charges against Kristine were dropped.
Now, Natalia has spoken out about her ordeal in a rare interview with PEOPLE.
Natalia said she struggled to adapt to life on her own, particularly manoeuvring around her second-storey flat with her disability.
“I really disliked being the girl who was re-aged and lived in her own apartment,” she said.
“I didn't understand why I was alone. I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive."
The young woman then claimed she was 'coached' to lie about her age, adding: "All I was told was, ‘You're 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you're 22 and you tried to murder your family.' I was taught to lie."
Natalia also accused her former adoptive mother of hitting her with a belt, pepper-spraying her in the face and giving her too much prescribed medication while denying the claims that she tried to injure Kristine.
She said: "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?
"I feel like I was brainwashed by the Barnetts."
In response to allegations, Kristine wrote in a post on Facebook that Natalia was 'not abused' and that her allegations are 'just plain false' before branding her a 'sociopath'.
Michael Barnett also claimed on Good Morning America that doctors treating Natalia said she was a 'con artist'.
Natalia's life seemed to turn around when she was adopted by the Mans family, yet the final episodes, due to premiere on January 6 and 7, suggest her new family don't trust her.
Natalia is also said to allege Antwon and Cynthia Mans have subjected her to further physical and psychological abuse.