Natalia Grace’s story is continuing to unfold. In ET’s exclusive, un-aired clip from The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, Natalia’s conversation with her former adoptive father, Michael Barnett, continues.
In 2010, Michael and his wife, Kristine Barnett, thought they had adopted a 6-year-old orphaned girl from Ukraine. Not realizing she had a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal, the Indiana couple claimed that they became suspicious that their newest family member was not actually a child.
The clip starts with Natalia questioning why doctors thought she was schizophrenic, which Michael answers by saying, “You told them you were hearing voices.”
Natalia wonders if Michael knows why she said as much, and he notes that, while he understands now, he didn’t at the time.
“At the time, you gotta understand, the only thing I know is I’m coming home and there are a lot of things being said,” he explains. “… You were telling therapists and Kristine and I that you were hearing voices.”
“Again, knowing what I know now I might know where the source of that came from, but you gotta understand, all I know is you are telling me you are hearing voices, they are telling me you are hearing voices, the therapist is saying you are hearing voices, these documents from the stress center that doctors have written out saying you are hearing voices,” Michael continues. “What am I supposed to believe?”
Then, in a confessional, Natalia alleges that, “whenever Kristine would take me to a mental hospital or stress centers or stuff like that, she would always tell me to tell them that you are hearing voices, that you want to hurt yourself, that you want to hurt other people.”
“Me being like 7 years old I’m like, ‘I don’t know what this means but it’s something that my ‘mom’ told me to say,'” Natalia adds of Kristine, who she accused of abuse throughout the ID series. Kristine, who’s now split from Michael, previously denied Natalia’s allegations and called her former adoptive daughter a “sociopath.”
When the cameras go back to Natalia and Michael’s conversation, the former tells the latter, “Kristine is not my mom.”
“High-five, up top,” Michael, who previously called Kristine “a monster,” responds, before high-fiving Natalia. “There you go.”
When Natalia was living with Michael and Kristine, the then-couple legally changed her age from 6 to 22. The Barnett family then moved to Canada and left Natalia behind in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana.
Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent in 2022, while charges against Kristine, who denied that she abandoned Natalia, were dropped in March 2023.
On the ID series, through DNA tests, Natalia’s age was seemingly confirmed to be around 22, suggesting she was around 9 when the Barnetts adopted her.
Afterwards, Natalia was legally adopted by Antwon and Cynthia Mans, the legal guardians who took her in after the Barnetts.
The closing minute of the episode threw everything on its head, however, introducing a title card that read, “Two weeks ago, and six months after Natalia’s adoption, the producers got a shocking phone call.” Audio then played, in which Antwon and Cynthia claimed they’d been deceived by Natalia.
A final title card then appeared on screen, which promised, “Natalia’s story will continue.”
While fans will have to wait to see how Natalia’s story plays out, Cynthia recently addressed the situation in an interview with The Sun, telling the outlet, “We are absolutely perfect. No, she doesn’t live with us but we are fine.”
Cynthia further said that Natalia, who recently launched a GoFundMe, is “living with friends,” and explained that she could not elaborate on their supposed fallout due to filming the next season of the docuseries.
“It’s rough, but with God, we gonna make it,” Cynthia said. “I am in prayer.”
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks is now streaming on Max.
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