Orphan Natalia Grace Slams Parents 'Lies' As She Speaks Out, Denies Being 'Crazy Person'

Television By TooFab Staff |
ID

"This is my story and I'm only gonna say it once," Natalia -- who was either a 6-year-old Ukrainian child or a woman in her 20s when she was adopted in 2010 -- says, calling her adoptive parents claims "not true."

After six whole hours filled with others detailing her alleged behavior on "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace," the woman at the center of it all is speaking out in her own special.

On Thursday, Investigation Discovery confirmed they are following up their six-part docuseries with new documentary featuring an interview with Natalia Grace herself. "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks" will be the first time she's addressed her family's claims in public since the neglect charges against her parents were thrown out.

A quick refresher on the case: Michael and Kristina Barnett claimed Natalia -- who was born with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia -- came to them through an adoption agency in 2010 and were told she was six at the time. But they began to doubt her age and, in June 2012, Marion County Superior Court agreed to legally change the girl's birth record to indicate she was born in 1989 and not 2003. Shortly after, the Barnetts set her up with her own apartment, before they were arrested and charged for neglect in 2019.

Michael was cleared of all four neglect charges he was facing on October 27, 2022, while the charges against Kristine were dismissed in March 2023. In public, the divorced duo both claimed that Natalia was not a child and was actually a woman in her 20s out to kill them and their children.

"The things that Michael said that I've done is a lie," Natalia says in a preview for the special. "She was trying to make me seem like I was just this big crazy person, that's not true."

"I wanna tell people what really happened because I didn't get that chance. This is my story and I'm only gonna say it once," she adds.

In another preview clip from the special given to ET, Grace says it's "very frustrating" to see all the comments made by her adoptive parents.

"Because I already don't know who I am and I wanna know who I am, what happened to me, but I'm hearing all this stuff that never actually happened from Kristine and Michael and I'm just like, it's shocking and it's frustrating," she explains, "because that's not true and people are believing what Kristine and Michael are saying without even hearing my side."

"This is my side of the story and I'm gonna say what happened because I never got a chance to say what happened," she adds. "You all have heard Kristine and Michael and what they have said, but you need to hear both sides in order to know what really happened."

According to a release from ID, "the new documentary will feature shocking and emotional access to Natalia Barnett as she tells her side of the story in the next chapter of a bizarre family saga."

They say the special will be her answer to their original docuseries, in which she'll "share her side of the story of what happened behind the closed doors of the Barnett family home and address allegations against her head on." The release concludes, "After years of being cloaked under a gag order due to the subsequent legal proceedings around the 2019 arrest of her adoptive parents, Natalia has been unable to tell her story - until now."

No premiere date has yet been set, though it will air sometime this summer. "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" is available on Max now. Check out our ongoing coverage of the saga below!