Natalia Grace on Feeling Brainwashed, Her Daring Late-Night time time Escape & Making an attempt Ahead

The actual-life “Orphan,” who was legally re-aged from 8 to 22 years earlier and compelled to remain on her private by her adoptive family after accusations she tried to kill them, opens as a lot as People about how points went from unhealthy to worse collectively together with her subsequent adoptive mom and father.
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace enraptured the nation in 2023 when the real-life “Orphan” shared her story on Investigation Discovery and eventually answered the question of whether or not or not she was a toddler with dwarfism or a dangerous grownup masquerading as a toddler for nefarious causes.
After a shocking array of twists and turns, along with interviews with Natalia and her adoptive father, Michael Barnett, her supply 12 months was confirmed as 2003 and she or he appeared on the verge of lastly getting a cheerful ending and a family that may be there for her…
Until she wasn’t.
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The distinctive run of the ID assortment ended with hints that points have been already starting to go unhealthy with the Mans family, who’d taken Natalia in after the Barnetts had dumped her to remain on her private in an condominium at 8 years earlier, after legally altering her supply 12 months from 2003 to 1989, making her legally 22 years earlier — nevertheless biologically nonetheless solely eight.
Now, Natalia is once more to wrap up her story in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Remaining Chapter, airing on back-to-back nights, January 6 and 7, on ID.
Ahead of the docuseries premiere, in an interview distinctive to People, the 21-year-old opened up in regards to the psychological and emotional toll of her journey to date, along with what life was like with every the Barnetts and the Mans, sooner than ready for her future now that she’s actually an grownup.
Whereas Natalia has been the star of her private docuseries, and is once more to proceed telling her story, she knowledgeable People that she’s actually pretty uncomfortable on digicam, with the outlet detailing an incident the place she had an emotional breakdown whereas filming.
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In step with the outlet, after shouting at all people to “get out,” with Natalia’s face reportedly registering “anxiousness to raw fear and at last panic,” she lastly emerged calm and in a position to switch forward. “I’ve nervousness all one of the simplest ways to the roof,” she knowledgeable People in rationalization.
“I actually don’t love being filmed or being on a TV current. I’m additional of a quiet lady who enjoys sitting on a porch swing with a information and a scorching chocolate or espresso throughout the morning,” she added.
Natalia has been acknowledged with reactive attachment dysfunction, a conduct state of affairs frequent for kids who’ve frolicked in an orphanage, along with nervousness, ADHD and PTSD.
For Natalia, a great deal of her triggers must do with the tumultuous life she’s led since her supply in Ukraine to a mother who gave her up on account of her dwarfism. She was first adopted by Dyan and Gary Ciccone in 2008 at 5 years earlier, nevertheless they quickly gave up parental rights, citing her disruptive conduct.
It was then that her story with the Barnetts’ began, after the Indiana couple adopted her in 2010.
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Life with Barnetts
Two years later, suspicious that she’d been lying about her exact age — on account of her having grownup tooth, pubic hair, and experiencing menstruation — and accusing her of making an attempt to kill mom Kristine Barnett, they’d her legally re-aged proper right into a 22-year-old grownup in courtroom after which in 2013, they set her up in an condominium to remain on her private.
Kristine generally known as Natalia a violent “sociopath” and alleged that her adoptive daughter had tried to poison her espresso and drag her in direction of {an electrical} fence. The couple even said they awoke one time to Natalia looming over them with a knife, amongst totally different allegations of sexual deviance and violence.
Inside the new season of the current, Natalia counters these with allegations in opposition to Kristine, claiming her adoptive mother hit her with a belt, pepper-sprayed her, and overdosed her on medicines on operate. She moreover denies ever making an attempt to hurt the Barnetts.
“I actually really feel like I’ve to defend myself and be like, ‘Do I seem to be anybody that may push anyone twice my measurement proper right into a fence? Do I seem to be I would even grip a knife?’” she argues throughout the new episodes.
In January 2024, Kristine denied that Natalia was ever abused in a Fb publish, throughout which she wrote, “I sat by fairly a number of hospital visits and treatment visits trying to know and help Natalia and contemplating we’d be able to uncover the muse of the issue. In the long term I noticed she is a sociopath.”
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Michael knowledgeable Good Morning America that the medical docs treating Natalia knowledgeable the couple “this particular person is a sociopath. This particular person is a con artist. You may be all in peril.”
As Natalia’s story first made its means into the media, most of the people didn’t know what to contemplate. “There have been a number of folks saying, ‘You’re fake. You’re a liar. You’re a pedophile.’ I’m moreover recognized for the little lady that was helpless and was crushed and starved and all that,” Natalia knowledgeable People.
“That isn’t who I’m,” she said, explaining why she’s agreed to tell her story in such a public dialogue board by together with, “Nevertheless that seems to be the one issue that folk know — and that’s the reason it hurts me fairly a bit.”
Speaking about residing on her private at eight years earlier in that second-story condominium, Natalia talked about how her bodily incapacity made it troublesome to attain points throughout the condominium, saying she didn’t like residing on her private and having to tell people she was 22 years earlier.
“I didn’t understand why I was alone. I merely knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive,” she said. “All I was knowledgeable was, ‘You’re 22 now. Each time anybody asks you what your age is, you say you might be 22 and in addition you tried to murder your family members.’ I was taught to lie.”
Prosecutors in Tippecanoe County, Indiana did lastly price the Barnetts with neglecting a dependent, nevertheless Michael was found not accountable by a jury in 2022, and the prices in opposition to Kristine have been lastly dropped the next 12 months.
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Life with Mans
Natalia first met the Mans whereas residing on her private throughout the condominium the Barnetts prepare for her. After just some days of talking, Cynthia Mans invited Natalia to maneuver in collectively together with her and her husband, Antwon Mans, a pastor, and their 10 children.
In 2023, Natalia’s licensed age was restored to 2003 after intensive medical assessments and DNA analysis, and she or he was formally adopted into the Mans family. There, she said she was invited to affix their religion and helped elevate their children.
“I noticed be a mother,” Natalia said of her time with the Mans, which included the whole thing from caring for infants to serving to with homework.
In step with Natalia, though, her independence and romantic life as a 20-year-old quickly turned a provide of rivalry in her new residence.
In step with Natalia, Antwon discovered her social media communications with an individual named Neil and allegedly began to blackmail her with sexually particular motion pictures and footage he’d stolen. She moreover said he took her cellphone and refused to allow them to stay concerned.
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Inside the new episodes, witnesses reported seeing the Manses assault Natalia with a belt, slap her all through the face, and even lock her in her room. People didn’t receive a response from the Manses or their attorneys with regard to these allegations.
After a decade, Natalia deliberate her escape from the Mans’ residence with the assistance of UK-based boyfriend Neil and Vince and Nicole DePaul, who’re moreover little people and had as quickly as tried to undertake her solely to be turned down.
On December 22, 2023, Nicole drove from upstate New York all one of the simplest ways to Nashville, the place she picked up Natalia at a church the place the Manses had moved. Natalia said she was so anxious about leaving, she “wanted to textual content material my mom to let her know I wasn’t kidnapped or ineffective.”
“It was an emotional time. I wanted to unfold my wings,” she added.
Looking for to the Future
Natalia stays to be residing with the DePauls and thriving, with the couple emphasizing that taking in a toddler consists of that complete infant. “Did she perhaps do weird points before now? Yeah,” Nicole says throughout the docuseries. “Everytime you take in a toddler, you take that infant as your particular person. You don’t merely eradicate them as soon as they don’t match into your puzzle.”
“It has been a large finding out curve for me,” Natalia knowledgeable People of her tumultuous life to date these first 21 years. “For primarily essentially the most half, I’ve made peace. It’s positively a blessing to be alive for the time being. And there’s nothing I can do to differ the earlier.”
People experiences that Natalia is now studying for her GED — she was beforehand homeschooled — with plans to develop right into a grade school coach.
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For the first time in her life, the money she’s incomes goes into an account collectively together with her determine on it (some throughout the current allege the Mans had been stealing her money for years). She may also be finding out to drive, with the hopes of with the power to remain completely unbiased ultimately.
“I’m a woman who loves kids and must get married and have children,” she said, sharing that she and Neil simply these days met for the first time and that they’ve expressed their love for one another, nevertheless she’s taking it sluggish.
“One amongst my biggest points won’t be making ensures I’m unable to protect,” she said. “I’ve had too many ensures which have been broken. I’m merely ready to maneuver on.”
Natalia moreover shared that she sipped alcohol for the first time on her twenty first birthday in September and simply these days purchased her seventh tattoo, which interprets from Ukrainian as, “Perception No One.” She says it’s a turning into motto for her story.
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Remaining Chapter airs January 6 and 7 on ID.
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