For years, Natalia Grace’s story has gripped the nation. The former Ukrainian orphan gave viewers an in-depth glimpse into her side of her adoption story in the ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks. The doc is a follow-up to the ID series that featured her adoptive family, who accused Natalia of being a grown woman posing as a child that tried to kill them.
Natalia lives with the rare genetic disorder spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, which affects her physical stature. The story continues as Hulu is set to release a limited series called Good American Family on March 19, 2025, with Ellen Pompeo starring as Kristine Barnett, Natalia’a adoptive mother. Learn more about Kristine below.
Who Is Natalia Grace’s Adoptive Mother?
Per the U.S. Sun, Kristine is an author and works as a professional speaker to advocate for children living with autism. She is also the founder of Jacob’s Place.
During Natalia’s ID docuseries, she alleges that Kristine was an unfit guardian and had other motives for adopting her. Natalia also spoke with E! and accused Kristine of using her.
“Kristine said that adopting me was this mission of love, and never once did I see any love,” Natalia was heard saying in one clip from the show, obtained by the outlet. “I feel like it was a mission of boosting her ego type of thing. I feel like she just wanted people to be like, ‘Oh my goodness, like she’s this amazing person. … She just adopted a little girl from the Ukraine who has dwarfism and has all these different medical issues and everything like that. You know, she’s a great mom for wanting to help somebody, right?’”
Natalia described Kristine as someone with a different “mask” on. “But and then it’s like, pull that mask off — this is who she really is, like your true colors,” Natalia said. “Kristine was a monster. I didn’t know what she was going to do next.”
In 2013, the Barnett family left Natalia in Lafayette, Indiana, alone while they moved away without her. Kristine and Natalia’s formerly adoptive father, Michael Barnett, then faced criminal charges for the neglect of a dependent in 2019. Despite the former couple having had successfully updated Natalia’s birth certificate to indicate that she was born in 1989 instead of 2003, the Barnetts were still charged with multiple counts of neglect of a child.
Michael’s charges were dropped in 2022, and Kristine’s were dismissed in 2023.
Where Is Kristine Barnett Now?
Kristine is now reportedly living in Florida after divorcing Michael in 2018.
Where Is Natalia Grace Today?
As of now, Natalia has reportedly been living with her newly adoptive family in Indiana. After the Barnetts left her in Lafayette, Indiana, she eventually met Antwon and Cynthia Mans, who became her adoptive parents. However, reports claim the couple was controlling, which led Natalia to leave and now live with the DePaul family as of 2025.
