Adopted child accused of being 'fully grown woman' defends herself against allegations in rare interview

When Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace was just eight years old, she was accused by her adoptive parents of attempted murder.

Her mother and father, Kristine and Michael Barnett, had become convinced she was actually a 'fully grown woman', and using a rare case of dwarfism to con them into believing she was a child.

After taking the case to court in 2010 - where they also alleged that Natalia had been physically abusive to them while under their care - the youngster's legal age was changed from eight to 22 overnight.

The years that followed saw a group of health experts rally together, using a series of tests aimed at determining her chronological age as part of a new true crime documentary titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks.

In 2023, doctors ruled that Natalia was now in her very early twenties, meaning she had been a child when the Barnetts adopted her.

And following years of emotional torment, this week, the now 21-year-old is speaking out, denying all of the accusations her parents made about her allegedly abusive and even 'sociopathic' behaviour.

At the time that Natalia's case was taken to the courts, her father Michael told Dr. Oz’s True Crime viewers it was 'obvious' that his daughter's records 'falsified'.

"This is an adult masquerading as a child," he claimed.

"We took her to the stress center to have her evaluated that she is having thoughts of harming others, and she is stating out loud that she is attempting to kill Kristine."

The couple accused Natalia of trying to poison Kristine's coffee and pushing her into an electric fence, threaetning them with a knife, and placing thumb tacks on the stairs face-up so that they'd step on them.

In her first ever magazine interview, however, Natalia has shut down each and every allegation made against her, and has discussed how they've since left her traumatised.

"I feel like I have to defend myself and be like, ‘Do I look like somebody that could push someone twice my size into a fence? Do I look like I could even grip a knife?'," she told PEOPLE Magazine this week, discussing her dwarfism.

"I feel like I was brainwashed by the Barnetts. Kristine coached me to lie about my age and say I tried to murder my parents.

Natalia is now 21 (Investigation Discovery)

"Why would you do that to your child?"

While denying that she ever harmed her parents, during the height of her criminal case, Natalia told police that Kristine had hit her with a belt on several occasions, and pepper-sprayed her in the eyes.

She also alleged that her adoptive mother had once given her three times the recommended dose of a prescribed medication, and that they'd mentally abused her.

In 2011, the Barnetts moved Natalia into a second story apartment in a nearby town - the stairs of which she struggled to climb due to her condition - before fleeing to Canada, cutting all contact with their daughter.

Indiana Police later charged the Barnetts with neglecting a dependent - but in 2022, a jury found Michael not guilty of any form of neglect, and charges against Kristine were dropped the following year.

The latter wrote on Facebook following the release of the Discovery+ documentary: "[Natalia] was not abused by anyone in my family. Nobody ever took a belt to Natalia, and the allegations that she was ‘beaten’ are just plain false.

"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."

Natalia was eight when she was adopted (Investigation Discovery)

Discussing how such accusations have impacted the way she lives now, Natalie went on to explain: "There were a lot of people saying, 'You’re fake. You’re a liar. You’re a pedophile'.

"I’m also known for the little girl that was helpless and was beaten and starved and all that. That’s not who I am.

"But that seems to be the only thing that people know—and that’s why it hurts me a lot."