Where Are Natalia Grace's Parents Now?

Here’s Where Natalia Grace’s Adoptive Parents Are Now After They Reported ‘Something Ain’t Right With’ Her

The story of Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian-born American with dwarfism who was adopted by a family in the United States and then abandoned, 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 the upcoming Hulu series Good American Family, starring Ellen Pompeo. But what really happened with Natalia Grace?

It’s been the question on a lot of people’s minds for years. The story is this: Natalia Grace was first brought to the United States as a child and adopted by parents who later abandoned her. She was adopted again, but her second set of adoptive parents claimed she was an adult posing as a child, so they abandoned her too. Natalia went on to be adopted a third time.

Who are Natalia Grace’s parents? Who adopted her when and why was she abandoned? Where are they now? Here’s everything we know.

Where are Natalia Grace’s parents now?

Birth mother: Anna Volodymyrivna Gava

Natalia Grace was born in Ukraine to Anna Volodymyrivna Gava. After her birth, she was placed in an orphanage in Ukraine. Details of her birth mother were only discovered after a case of neglect was brought up against her second adoptive parents and prosecutors investigated to try to determine her real age at the time she was abandoned to live on her own.

She was born in Latvia on April 20, 1979, and has spoken out about Natalia Grace since she was discovered, telling the Daily Mail she gave her daughter up for adoption because she couldn’t properly care for her disability.

“Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you,” she said in a 2019 interview. “We are waiting for you. You have two sisters and two brothers.” She lives in Ukraine.

She also added, “I didn’t initially want to leave her, but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. ‘You are young,’ they said, ‘You are 24 years old. Don’t ruin your life, you will have other children.’”

As for Natalia Grace, the last she spoke about it, in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, she said, “I get it, you probably do wanna see me and everything like that, but I have a family here. I have my parents who raised me.”

First adoptive parents: Dyan and Gary Ciccone

Natalia Grace was originally adopted by the Ciccone’s in New Hampshire. How she got from them to her second pair of adoptive parents it’s hard to tell, though it seems to have been a private adoption. Rumors have swirled that the Ciccones tried to “sell” Natalia to the next family, due to the fact that her medical needs were too expensive.

The Ciccone’s paid for one of Natalia Grace’s surgeries and afterward, were said to be looking for new parents for her. Reports even indicate there was one teacher who wanted to adopt her but couldn’t “afford” to do so. This raises the question of what exactly the Ciccones were asking for. Reddit even went as far as to suggest child trafficking.

One Redditor said, “So someone on Twitter posted a link to a ProPublica filing and Dyan Ciccone also appears to be running her own adoption agency out of New Hampshire. I think it’s possible these people were ‘flipping’ these foreign-born adoptees in private $$ adoptions- utilizing their own ‘adoption agency’ to facilitate these deals.”

No information about the Ciccone’s whereabouts is publicly available.

Second adoptive parents: Michael and Kristine Barnett

It was Natalia Grace’s second adoptive parents that brought her story into the spotlight. In 2010, Natalia was adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett, who abandoned her just a couple of years later, with the two claiming she wasn’t a child. 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.”

The couple were charged with abandoning and endangering a dependent after moving Natalia Grace to an apartment by herself and then leaving the country for Canada. In 2012, 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. That meant Natalia Grace was only 10 years old when she was left to live on her own.

The two split up in 2014 and were already separated by the time they were charged. Michael Barnett was acquitted of the charges, and Natalia Grace says he reached out to her and during the conversation said he and Natalia had “the same monster” in Kristine. He lives in Indiana now. The charges against Kristine were dropped due to insufficient evidence. She is believed to be living in Florida.

Third adoptive parents: Cynthia and Antwon Mans

Cynthia and Antwon Mans brought Natalia Grace, 22, into their home after she was abandoned by the Barnetts and they discovered she was living alone. The adoption was apparently not made legal until 2023, but Natalia Grace lived with them and referred to them as her parents throughout The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks documentary.

But a new Investigation Discovery documentary called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter set to air in January, showed the beginning of the issues between Natalia Grace and her third set of adoptive parents. A teaser for the documentary shows Antwon Mans telling producers “Something ain’t right with Natalia.” She also has not appeared in any family pictures with the Mans in some time and reportedly does not live with them anymore. The family has kept posting pictures without her and is active on social media.

Current adoptive parents: Nicole and Vince DePaul

Not that much is known about her relationship with the DePauls other than what’s been teased about the upcoming documentary, whose synopsis reads in part, “After the Manses phone call revealed a tense and potentially dangerous living environment for Natalia, the DePaul family launched an epic rescue mission to free her from the suffocating life with Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans. Confronted with the choice of staying or leaving her home with the Manses, Natalia must work to build a new life for herself while also healing from the emotional turmoil caused by both the Manses and the Barnetts.”

The DePauls both have a form of dwarfism and said they originally wanted to adopt Natalia Grace in 2009 before she was adopted by the Barnetts.

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Where Are Natalia Grace’s Parents Now?