The release of Good American Family, an Ellen Pompeo limited series based on the adoption of Natalia Grace by Kristine and Michael Barnett, has brought the very famous case back to the spotlight. Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian-born girl with a rare form of dwarfism, was adopted by an American family in 2010, but the couple soon came to believe that instead of being a child, Natalia was actually an adult with psychiatric issues intent on deceiving them.
The story has been at the center of not one but two television series. There's The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (which was retitled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks for its second season) and Good American Family. And every time the case comes back, there are questions about the families involved with Natalia Gracie -- particularly the Barnetts, who were actually charged with abandoning and endangering a dependent.
Kristine and Michael Barnett moved Natalia Grace to an apartment by herself in 2013 and then left the country for Canada. They also successfully petitioned the court to change her birth date from 2003 to 1989. Prosecutors investigating the neglect case later found evidence that supported the 2003 birth date, including Natalia Grace's birth mother, meaning Natalia Grace was only 10 years old when she was left to live on her own.
But where is Natalia Grace's adoptive mother, Kristine Barnett, now? Are she and Michael still together? Here's what we know about Natalia Grace's adoptive mother.
Kristine Barnett currently lives in Florida and has stayed out of the spotlight for the last few years, particularly since there has been renewed interest in the case of Natalia Grace. She and Michael separated in 2014 and were already separated by the time they were charged. Kristine told the Daily Mail at the time, "Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults."
Charges against Kristine were dropped due to insufficient evidence. Natalia Grace has gone on to accuse Kristine of abuse, and her ex-husband Michael has claimed that Kristine Barnett was "his monster" as well.
Kristine hasn't really spoken in public about the matter, though in a post on Facebook last year, which has since been deleted, she addressed the accusations from both Natalia Grace and her ex-husband Michael. "Natalia was a very much loved and cared for member of my family," she says. "She was not abused by anyone in my family."
"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," adding that Natalia was never abandoned.
"I believe Natalia takes advantage of that sympathy to manipulate people," Kristine goes on to say. "I believe this because I sat through numerous hospital visits and therapy visits trying to understand and help Natalia and thinking we might be able to find the root of the issue. In the end, I learned she is a sociopath."
She ends her post by saying that she is not Natalia's or Michael's "monster," as Michael claimed in the docuseries.
"Michael Barnett and Natalia Barnett may have the same monster, but that monster is not me," Kristine writes. "That monster, whether it's mental illness, sociopathy, or whatever it actually is, may be different for each of them. But it's within their own psyche."