Natalia Grace Barnett is sharing her side of the story.
For those who need a refresher, Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted Natalia who was born with the rare genetic disorder spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia in 2010. They were told by the adoption agency that she was 6 years old at the time. However, they soon started to doubt her age – believing she was way older than she said. And in 2012, they convinced the Marion County Superior Court to legally change Natalia’s birth record to state that she was born in 1989 and not 2003.
Shortly afterward, the Barnett family put her in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, while they moved to Canada with their sons. Kristine and Michael were then arrested and charged with neglect in 2019. However, their charges were later dismissed. The now divorced couple have claimed for years that Natalia was not a child but instead, an adult woman who was trying to kill them and their kids.
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A six-part documentary series called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace dropped earlier this week, in which we saw Michael and his son Jake speak out about their time with Natalia. But now the woman at the center of this mystery is speaking out for the first time about her adoptive parents’ claims!
Investigation Discovery revealed they are releasing an interview special with Natalia this summer called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks. A press release from the network shared that “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 noted that she will detail “what happened behind the closed doors of the Barnett family home and address allegations against her head on,” adding:
“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.”
And there is already a preview out! In the sneak peek, Natalia slammed her adoptive parents for lying and making her out to be “this big crazy person.” She said:
“The things that Michael said that I’ve done is a lie. 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.”
Another preview obtained by Entertainment Tonight saw Natalia expressing how “frustrating” it’s been for her to see the comments made by Kristine and Michael:
“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 because that’s not true and people are believing what Kristine and Michael are saying without even hearing my side.”
She continued:
“This is my side of the story and I’m gonna say what happened because I never got a chance to say what happened. 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.”
Wow. Hopefully, we get some more answers to this wild situation. No premiere date for the interview has been revealed yet, but it will be coming sometime this summer. Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Investigation Discovery/YouTube]
The post IRL <i>Orphan</i> Natalia Grace Barnett Breaks Her Silence -- Slams Adoptive Parents For Making Her Out To Be A 'Crazy Person' appeared first on Perez Hilton.