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Natalia Grace Adoption Case: How Her Docuseries Ended on a Chilling Plot Twist
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Date:2025-04-15 21:32:23
The mystery surrounding Natalia Grace continues.
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks—which explored accusations lodged against the Ukrainian orphan by her adoptive parents Michael and Kristine Barnett—ended on Jan. 3 in a major plot twist, with her new family also alleging to seeing troubling behavior.
Though Natalia was initially taken in by Antwon and Cynthia Mans after the Barnetts severed ties with her, the couple revealed in the final moments of the ID docuseries that they, too, were "done with her."
"Something ain't right with Natalia. This girl is tweaking," Antwon told producers in a phone call. "I feel like she's the enemy in the house. And she said to us, we have held her hostage. Made us look like we're the enemy."
Meanwhile, Cynthia accused Natalia of "stabbing her family in the back over a complete lie."
"She's done other things too, but this was a new low," Antwon added. "Natalia does not have emotions for nothing but herself. We're done."
E! News has not been able to obtain Natalia's contact information for comment.
Natalia—who has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare form of dwarfism—was first adopted by the Barnetts in 2010. At the time, the Barnetts said they believed she was 6 years old.
The pair grew suspicious of Natalia's age as time went on, alleging that she was actually an adult with intentions to hurt their family. In 2012, the Barnetts petitioned a court to change Natalia's birth year from 2003 to 1989, before moving to Canada with their three sons the following year and leaving Natalia in the United States.
Michael and Kristine, who finalized their divorce in 2018, were subsequently brought up on neglect charges in connection to their move. However, Michael was found not guilty on his charges in 2022 and prosecutors dropped their case against Kristine in March 2023.
On The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, a DNA test conducted by a medical lab concluded Natalia was around 22 years old as of August 2023, indicating that she would've been approximately 9 years old when she moved in with the Barnetts.
"This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match," Natalia said after receiving the lab results. "They ignored everything that was pointing to the truth just so they could create this stupid lie."
When she confronted her estranged father, Michael offered a tearful apology, which Natalia accepted.
"I forgive you," she told him, prompting Michael to tell her, "You don't have to."
He added, "I don't forgive me."
For her part, Kristine has denied allegations of mistreatment and abandonment brought up in the docuseries.
"She was not abused by anyone in my family," Kristine wrote, in part, on Facebook Jan. 3. "Any discipline of Natalia was very minimal and was not out of the bounds of normal parenting. If anything it was overly permissive as we all felt a tremendous amount of sympathy for Natalia and loved her while she lived with us."
For more true crime updates on your need-to-know cases, head to Oxygen.com.veryGood! (99)
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