How old is Natalia Grace? This seemingly simple question is at the heart of the new based-on-a-true-story series “Good American Family,” as well as other shows about Natalia Grace, like “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.”
In 2010, Indiana-based couple Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted Grace, a child from Ukraine with a rare form of dwarfism.
While the adoption agency provided a Ukrainian birth certificate stating that Grace had been born in 2003, the Barnetts said they began to wonder if she was actually an adult posing as a little girl. Meanwhile, Grace maintained that she was a child all along.
Here’s what to know.
More about Natalia Grace and ‘Good American Family’
What did the Barnetts say about Natalia Grace’s age?
The Barnetts have said that soon after adopting Grace, they began to suspect she was an adult pretending to a child around the age of 7.
“Looking back to 2010, something just wasn’t right,” Michael Barnett said in a 2019 interview with U.K. outlet ITV news.
Michael Barnett said in the ITV interview that when his wife gave Grace a bath the first night after the adoption, she noticed the girl had pubic hair.
In a 2023 court deposition shown in the documentary, Barnett also said Grace told him she already had a monthly period.
“Natalia said, ‘I have a period and I’ve been hiding it from you because I don’t want you to know,’” he said.
A period is not necessarily a sign of adulthood. According to the Mayo Clinic, precocious puberty occurs when a child’s body matures too soon. For girls, that is before the age of 8.
Grace has disputed this. In the documentary, she alleges that Kristine Barnett abused her and forced her to pretend she was menstruating.
“I was 7 years old and all of a sudden, Kristine just tried to convince me that I was having my period. Kristine literally just said, ‘You started your period,’ and she forced me to put the tampon in, and I literally just told her, ‘I can’t, I can’t do it, it hurts,’” Grace says. “I remember Kristine being mad because I couldn’t do it.”
Kristine Barnett had denied allegations that she physically abused Grace.
“Natalia was a very much loved and cared for member of my family,” she said in a now-deleted Facebook post. “She was not abused by anyone in my family. … Any discipline of Natalia was very minimal and was not out of the bounds of normal parenting.”
Did the Barnetts change Natalia Grace’s legal age?
According to an affidavit for probable cause filed by the state of Indiana in 2019, the Barnetts legally changed Grace’s age birth certificate to say she was born in 1989, aging her up from 8 to 22, in June of 2012.
The couple rented an Indiana apartment for Grace to live in on her own starting in July of 2013, according to the affidavit. Afterward, the couple moved to Canada with their three biological children. Kristine Barnett instructed Grace to tell people she was actually 22 years old, per the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the couple was aware that doctors at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital had determined Grace was a minor in 2012.
In 2019, the Barnetts were each charged with six counts of neglect of a dependent and two counts of conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent. Michael Barnett was acquitted of his charges after a jury trial in 2022 and the charges against his wife were dismissed.
What did Natalia Grace say about her age?
Grace has always maintained that she was a young child when she was adopted, and has said Kristine Barnett forced her to lie about being an adult.
“I was terrified of her. I was terrified, so when Kristine told me to tell people that I was 22, I listened because I didn’t know what she would have me do. I didn’t know what she would do to me,” Grace says in the documentary. “She threatened me into telling people lies. At first I said, ‘No, I’m a kid,’ and I guess she just got so mad.”
In the documentary, Grace also says she was initially unaware that the Barnetts had filed a court motion to charge her legal birthdate from 2003 to 1989. Grace says these legal proceedings took place after the Barnetts sent her away to Larue Carter Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“I did not know that Michael and Kristine were changing my age,” Grace says.
How old is Natalia Grace?
In 2010, a doctor at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital examined Grace and determined her age was about 8, according to a 2019 affidavit filed in the Tippecanoe Court in Indiana obtained by TODAY.com. A skeletal examination of Grace in 2012 also found that Grace was approximately 11 years old, per the affidavit.
“The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” provides evidence to support that Grace is in her early 20s.
In one episode, Grace is seen taking a DNA test with a company called TruDiagnostic in August 2023 to determine her true age.
“I just really want people to see the truth,” she says.
In an emotional scene, Grace is told that her DNA test results found she was about 22, meaning she was definitely a child when she was adopted by the Barnetts.
“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts have said right into the trash, with a match,” Grace says.
“This is so big because literally this has been 13 years … of just two people lying their butts off,” she also says.
The documentary also includes an interview with Dr. Timothy Gossweiler, a dentist who conducted an analysis of Grace’s teeth in 2011.
Gossweiler shows X-rays of Grace’s teeth from that examination, and he says that at the time, Grace “had 12 baby teeth remaining.”
“This is way too many baby teeth to be an adult,” he says in the docuseries, adding that the X-rays offer “indisputable” proof that Grace was a child when the exam was performed.
“You can’t fake teeth coming in like this,” he says.
The documentary also shows paperwork that was reportedly provided to Kristine Barnett at the time, which states that based on her dental results, Grace was estimated to be 8 or 9 years old in 2011.
Today, Grace is living with Nicole and Vincent DePaul, a New York couple with Dwarfism. The Barnetts have since divorced and moved back to the U.S., according to court filings.
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