Where is Natalia Grace now? An update on the woman who inspired ‘Good American Family’ (and what happened to her adoptive parents)

Natalia Grace

Natalia was adopted by the Barnetts in 2010. Over the next couple of years, the family would accuse Natalia, whom they believed to be 6 years old at the time of the adoption, of lying about her age. They also accused her of bringing a knife into their bedroom as they slept and of trying to kill Kristine by poisoning her coffee and attempting to push her into an electrified fence.

After having her “re-aged” from 8 years old to 22 years old by an Indiana court, they left Natalia to live alone in an apartment, after which they moved to Canada to pursue their son Jacob’s education and cut off contact with her.

“I didn’t understand why I was alone,” Natalia told PEOPLE in January. “I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive. All I was told was, ‘You’re 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you’re 22 and you tried to murder your family.’ I was taught to lie.”

What happened with Natalia Grace and the Mans family?

While living alone in an apartment, Natalia made a friend in a neighbor, Cynthia Mans, who soon invited her to move into the home she shared with her husband, Antwon, a pastor, and their 10 kids. Over the next several years, the Manses worked to gain guardianship of Natalia, though that also required them to petition the courts to vacate the previous age-change order.

It took years, a DNA analysis, and several medical tests for Natalia’s birthdate to be changed from 1989 back to 2003. In 2023, the Manses officially adopted Natalia, who told PEOPLE that living with the family helped her “learn how to be a mother,” as she helped care for the other children.

By this point, Natalia’s story had exploded due to Investigation Discovery’s The Curious Case of Natalia Grace documentary, which also aired on Max. Season 2 allowed Natalia to publicly counter the allegations made by the Barnetts. It also highlighted the DNA test that proved Natalia was 22 years old at the time of testing — and thus a child when the Barnetts sent her to live alone.

“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?’” Natalia told PEOPLE, referring to how her dwarfism impacts her physicality. “I feel like I was brainwashed by the Barnetts. Kristine coached me to lie about my age and say I tried to murder my parents. Why would you do that to your child?”

Season 2, however, ended on a distressing note, with Natalia’s new adoptive parents, Antwon and Cynthia Mans, telling the producers that Natalia had become “the enemy of the house.” He added, “She said to us we have held her hostage… We’re done with her.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, ID president Jason Sarlanis said, “We genuinely thought Natalia had found a happy ending with her new family, so you can imagine we were all thoroughly shocked when that call came from the Mans.”

Why did Natalia Grace leave the Mans family?

As depicted in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace season 3, which dropped in January, Natalia’s relationship with the Manses soured due to a relationship she forged via social media with a U.K. man named Neil, who told Natalia the family was exploiting her financially. The series also speaks with neighbors who claim they saw the Manses physically abusing Natalia. (The Manses did not respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE in January, nor did they respond to ID producers when they reached out about the allegations.)

In the final days of 2023, Natalia absconded from the Manses during an evening church service in Nashville, where the family had moved. As depicted in season 3,Natalia flees the church and gets into a van bound for the airport. With her is Nicole DePaul, who had previously attempted to adopt Natalia in 2009 with her husband, Vince. The escape plan was hatched with the help of Neil.

“Once I got in [Nicole’s] car, I had to text my mom to let her know I wasn’t kidnapped or dead,” Natalia told PEOPLE. “It was an emotional time. I had to spread my wings.” 

Where is Natalia Grace now?

Natalia is living in upstate New York with Nicole and Vince who also have a form of dwarfism. “At first it was bumpy because the Mans were still involved. They were calling Natalia constantly and trying to wheel her back in,” Nicole told PEOPLE. “It was just this constant thing where we were walking a fine line of not doing too much. See, she just came from this house that basically was ruled by a dictator, so I didn’t want to tell her what to do.”

According to PEOPLE, Natalia has been diagnosed with anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, and reactive attachment disorder, which is described by the Mayo Clinic as a condition in which a person struggles to “establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers” due to neglect.

As of January, she was studying for her GED, learning to drive, and nursing dreams of becoming a grade school teacher.

“I’m a girl who loves kids and wants to get married and have children,” she said. “But one of my biggest things is not making promises I can’t keep. I’ve had too many promises that have been broken. I’m just ready to move on.”

Michael Barnett

According to the Journal & Courier, Michael filed for divorce from Kristine in 2014. He eventually moved back to Indiana and remarried, though he divorced again in 2022, per TODAY.

In 2019, he was charged with neglect of a dependent. After the case made headlines, he defended himself on Good Morning America. During the interview, he claimed a doctor told him and Kristine that they were in “danger” from Natalia and that she was a “con artist” and “sociopath.”

In 2022, the Associated Press reported that he was acquitted of the charges.

He would go on to appear in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, speaking one-on-one with Natalia, who he hadn’t seen outside of a courtroom since leaving her alone in Indiana. During the conversation, he criticized his ex-wife, calling her a “monster.”

“I had the same monster you did,” he says. “I was exceptionally controlled and put down and threatened, was minimalized, anything that was who I was was ripped from me and I was guided and instructed to be exactly what she wanted me to be.”

Kristine Barnett

After moving to Canada, Kristine published The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism, a 2013 book about her experience raising her oldest son, Jacob, a child with autism and a genius-level intellect. The following year, Michael filed for divorce from her.

Like Michael, she was charged with neglect of a dependent in 2019. Three years later, the charges against her were dismissed.

Unlike Michael, she has mostly stayed out of the spotlight, refusing to appear in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace documentary. But after Natalia alleged that Kristine had abused her with a belt, pepper spray, and excess doses of medication, she denied the claims in a public Facebook post.

“[Natalia] was not abused by anyone in my family,” she wrote. “If there had been any abuse of Natalia or evidence of it, I would have been found guilty of it and I would be in jail.” She went on to call Natalia a “sociopath” who “takes advantage of [people’s] sympathy to manipulate people.”

She also didn’t apologize for re-aging Natalia or for leaving her alone to live in an apartment, writing, “A series of legal happenings based on Natalia’s own behaviors, statements, and much evidence led to her being re-aged at the recommendation of law enforcement. As a result she was allowed to make her own adult decisions of where to live and what to do with her life and time while living where she has.”