The stranger-than-fiction story of Natalia Grace and one set of her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, was a tabloid sensation and the focus of an explosive documentary.
Now, the “made for headlines” story is being explored in a new drama series called, “Good American Family,” premiering March 19 on Hulu.
Starring Ellen Pompeo as Kristine Barnett, Mark Duplass as Michael Barnett, and Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia Grace, “Good American Family” is “told from multiple points of view as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma,” according to Hulu.
This new drama, a fictionalization of the case, comes on the heels of Investigation Discovery’s third season of its documentary series, “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” which takes a deep dive into Grace’s story.
Speaking to TODAY.com, creator and showrunner Katie Robbins confirmed the show was not in touch with the real people depicted, “which made having the copious amounts of research that we have that much more essential,” she said.
The series drew from Facebook messages, text messages, depositions, medical records and adoption records, Robbins says. “I can’t even describe how many documents we were looking through,” she says.
The goal was not to make a “documentary version” of the story, Robbins says, because that exists elsewhere. Rather, she wanted to make “the most emotionally authentic version of this story,” which required drawing from research and identifying places “that we need to slightly heighten or embellish or adjust to create a compelling narrative story.”
Keep reading to learn more about the real story of Natalia Grace, what her former adoptive parents were charged with, and where she is now.
Who is Natalia Grace?
Natalia Grace is originally from Ukraine and came to the United States in 2008 when she was adopted by a New Hampshire couple.
Her Ukrainian adoption paperwork stated she was born in 2003, according to a 2021 document from the Court of Appeals in Indiana obtained by TODAY.com.
Grace was born with a form of dwarfism called diastrophic dysplasia, according to the document from the Court of Appeals in Indiana. This condition can affect bone growth and cause severe skeletal abnormalities, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
In 2010, the New Hampshire couple who originally adopted Grace put her up for re-adoption, per the document from the Indiana Court of Appeals. She was then adopted by Indiana couple Kristine and Michael Barnett, who have three biological children.
Soon after the adoption, the Barnetts have said they began to suspect that Grace was not a little girl, but an adult.
Grace’s age has been a point of contention. She has maintained that she was a child when she was adopted. In a season of “Natalia Speaks,” a DNA test suggested that Grace’s age was “closer to 22” at the time of filming, which made her 7 years old when she was adopted, according to the series.
Over the next two years, the Barnetts had Grace medically and psychologically tested. In 2012, the couple successfully filed a petition for a court order to change Grace’s birth year from 2003 to 1989, “based on age estimates provided by a primary care physician and social worker,” per the document from the Indiana Court of Appeals.
In 2013, the Barnetts moved Grace into her own apartment in Hamilton County, Indiana and “assisted Natalia in obtaining federal disability benefits and supportive services to help her transition to life as an adult,” per the document from the Indiana Court of Appeals. They then moved her into an apartment in Tippecanoe County, then moved to Canada with their biological children.
Soon after moving to Tippecanoe County, Grace met Antwon and Cynthia Mans, and moved in with them, per the Indiana Court of Appeals filing.
In March 2016, Antwon and Cynthia Mans filed a petition seeking guardianship of Grace, according to court documents. She was eventually adopted by them in 2023.
Six months after the adoption, the Manses expressed concerns about Grace in a recorded call to the producers of “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.”
“Something ain’t right with Natalia,” Antwon Mans said in the call, which was included in the docuseries. “This girl is tweakin.’ I feel like she’s the enemy in the house … Made us look like we’re the enemy.”
“Natalia does not have emotions for nothing but herself,” Antwon Mans also said on the call, as seen in the series. “We’re done. We’re done with her.”
Grace eventually left the Manses’ home with the help of the family she lives with now, Nicole and Vincent DePaul, a New York couple with dwarfism. In the final chapter of the Investigation Discovery docuseries, which came out in January 2025, Grace is shown living apparently happily with the DePauls.
“I didn’t have a normal childhood — I had my childhood ripped from me,” Grace said in the docuseries. She added, “I left the nest to explore. It feels really good to know that, yeah, I can actually do this.”
What happened between Natalia Grace and the Barnetts?
Soon after adopting Grace, the Barnetts began to believe she had malicious intentions toward them, Michael Barnett said in “The Curious Grace of Natalia Grace.”
“I can’t put into words the everyday abject horror that we had to go through and live with,” he said in the documentary.
The couple alleged that they once woke up to find Grace standing by their bed with a knife, a story Grace has denied.
“It’s a lie,” she said in the documentary. “I’m an 8-year-old, 37-pound little girl … I never tried to murder anybody.”
While the Barnetts initially said they believed Grace was an adult, Michael Barnett admitted they knew medical professionals had determined she was a minor at the time of her adoption, according to a 2019 affidavit of probable cause filed in the County of Tippecanoe in Indiana.
According to the same affidavit, Grace was examined at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in 2010 and her age was determined to be approximately 8. Two years later, she had a skeletal survey at the same hospital and her age was estimated as 11.
Michael Barnett later admitted that he and his wife “were aware” doctors had “determined Natalia was a minor child” when they left her alone in an apartment in 2013 and moved to Canada with their biological children, according to the affidavit.
Barnett also said his wife “told Natalia to tell others Natalia looks young but was actually 22,” the affidavit states.
Kristine Barnett did not participate in the docuseries or respond to requests for comment.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Kristine Barnett called the docuseries “highly sensationalized” and said Grace had been “a very much loved and cared for member of our family.”
“The fact that these false allegations are occurring after a trial with evidence which was dismissed is disturbing,” she wrote. “It’s like being assumed guilty after being proven innocent.”
What charges did the Barnetts face?
In September 2019, Michael and Kristine Barnett were each charged with six counts of neglect of a dependent and two counts of conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent.
In a convoluted legal battle spanning years, the Barnetts filed motions to dismiss the charges against them. Some of these motions were granted, but not all the charges were dismissed.
In a 2021 document, the Court of Appeals of Indiana maintained that the Barnetts had “engaged in numerous ‘positive acts’ to conceal their criminal neglect of Natalia.”
These acts, in part, included “changing Natalia’s age to conceal the illegality of abandoning her alone in an apartment and to repel others’ efforts to intervene,” as well “failing to disclose to the probate court the results of certain medical examinations and evaluations regarding Natalia’s age.”
The court also maintained that regardless of Grace’s age, the State of Indiana could proceed with certain counts against the Barnetts under “the theory that Natalia was a dependent because of a physical disability.”
Michael Barnett was found not guilty of the charges against him in October 2022, and the charges against Kristine Barnett were dismissed in March 2023, according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier.
Grace and the Barnetts have continued to share differing accounts of their time together.
Grace has alleged that the Barnetts abused her and made her lie about her age, and she has denied their claims that she physically threatened them.
“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 told People in January.
“I feel like I was brainwashed by the Barnetts,” she continued. “Kristine coached me to lie about my age and say I tried to murder my parents. Why would you do that to your child?”
In a charged conversation with Grace in the docuseries in 2023, Michael Barnett alleged that Kristine had abused him as well, and said he and Grace were both victims in the situation.
Michael and Kristine Barnett divorced in 2014, per NBC News.
“I had the same monster you did. I was exceptionally controlled and put down and threatened, was minimalized,” he said. “Who I was was ripped from me, and I was guided and instructed to be exactly what she wanted me to be.
Where is Natalia Grace now?
As of January 2025, Grace is living with Nicole and Vincent DePaul in upstate New York.
Nicole DePaul defended Grace in a recent People cover story, challenging the Barnetts’ previous claims about Grace’s behavior.
“Did she probably do weird things in the past? Yeah,” DePaul told People. “(But) when you take in a child, you take that child as your own. You don’t just get rid of them when they don’t fit into your puzzle.”
DePaul also said Grace experiences anxiety and has ADHD and PTSD.
According to Grace’s interview with People, she was studying for her GED, learning to drive, and earning her own money.
Grace has also said she is in a happy romantic relationship with a U.K.-based boyfriend called Neil.
“It’s been a big learning curve for me. For the most part, I’ve made peace. It is definitely a blessing to be alive today,” Grace told People. “And there’s nothing I can do to change the past.”
