We’re finally learning the truth about Natalia Grace Barnett.
By now you know the story. The Ukrainian orphan who inspired the horror movie The Orphan made headlines when her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, accused her of being an adult who wanted to harm their family – instead of being a 6-year-old child. In 2012, the pair had the courts change her age and birthdate from 2003 to 1989. They then fled to Canada, leaving Grace alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana. Kristine and Michael were arrested for child neglect. However, the charges were dropped.
Related: German Heiress’ Kids Kidnapped On New Year’s Eve!
Michael has continued to double-down on his and Kristine’s allegations over the years, sharing in the first season of Investigative Discovery’s documentary The Curious Case of Natalia Grace that she threatened to kill them. Now Grace finally shared her side of the story in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks. And the latest revelation to come out of it will have viewers’ jaws dropping!
During the first episode of the second season, it is revealed Natalia took a DNA Test with TruDiagnostic to determine her real age once and for all. And the results are in. Natalia learned she was close to 22 years old as of August 2023 — just two years older than she thought she was! That means she was a roughly 9-year-old child when Michael and Kristine adopted her in 2010! OMG!
Upon hearing the shocking news, Natalia broke down in tears while telling her new adoptive father, Antwon Mans:
“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnett’s said right into the trash with a match. This is so big. Because literally, this has been 13 years of just two people lying their butts off. They ruined a kid’s life. They painted me as some big monster, when in reality they were the ones. It just proves that I was not lying about my age.”
This poor girl! It’s heartbreaking how she spent so many years being accused of lying about her age. Not to mention, she went through this as a young child! She added:
“I just want to know why create this story, they knew and they still did what they did.”
For those who aren’t convinced, her childhood dentist even backs these details. Dr. Tim Gossweiler explained he examined Natalia in 2011 and determined after an X-ray that she still had 12 baby teeth remaining. So he also figured she was around 8 or 9 years old at the time:
“It’s indisputable. You can’t fake teeth coming in like this. So when mom and Natalia left, mom knew Natalia was around 8 or 9.”
And Dr. Gossweiler wasn’t the only one who placed her around this age the documentary claimed! On June 3, 2010, shortly after her adoption, an endocrinologist named Dr. Andrew Riggs examined Natalia and believed she was between the ages of nine and 11. He had passed the information along to the Barnetts. What?! So it appears they knew all along her real age! This begs the question now: Why did Kristine and Michael insist Natalia was pretending to be a child for so long? Natalia certainly wants to know the answer.
The Barnett family has not addressed this massive reveal yet. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Investigation Discovery/YouTube]
Related Posts
