Good American Family doesn’t bill itself as true crime, but the drama that unfolds between Natalia Grace, an adopted Ukrainian orphan, and her new family, the Barnetts, basically fits the bill. Based on the real-life saga of Natalia Grace, the show follows her adopted mother and father, Kristine and Michael Barnett (played by Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass, respectively) as they become increasingly suspicious that their new child isn’t actually a child after all. Midway through the season, Kristine becomes convinced that her theory is true, and the couple abandons Natalia in an apartment by herself, claiming that she is 22 years old, when in fact, she’s 8. It’s the kind of story you wish were fiction, but unfortunately, it’s almost entirely true.
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“It’s a story of family who had dealt with a lot, and they had the idea that adopting a child, a daughter, would sort of add to their family and maybe fix some things, maybe heal some wounds,” Pompeo told Good Morning America. “And, you know, sometimes when we have expectations that something will fix everything, things don’t go our way.”
Ahead, all of the real-life details you may or may not be curious about after watching the dramatization unfold on Good American Family.
Natalia came to the United States in 2003 after being surrendered by her birth mother to an orphanage in Ukraine. She was born with a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita. After her first family proved unable to care for her, she was adopted by the Barnetts in Indiana in 2010. By 2012, however, the couple had concluded that their new daughter was an adult masquerading as a child. They successfully petitioned a court to have her legal age changed to 22. The family then installed her in her own apartment, left her to fend for herself, and promptly immigrated to Canada.
Following her abandonment by the Barnetts, Natalia was “rescued” by Cynthia Mans (played by Christina Hendrix in the series), a devout Christian whose family already included other adopted children. At this point, Good American Family splits from the true story: whereas the show paints a warm picture of Natalia’s salvation, in reality she is now estranged from the Mans clan and has since been adopted by a fourth family, owing to allegations of abuse, according to People. Hulu’s dramatization acknowledges this development in the final episode with a postscript, but they had already finished filming by the time the allegations came to light.
Hulu isn’t the first network to become interested in Natalia’s story, and in fact, three seasons of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace have already been released on Max. The docuseries was made without Kristine Barnett, who called it a “sensationalized” depiction in a statement. Still, its revelations include Natalia’s story from Natalia’s point-of-view, something that Good American Family only manages to do in part.
