The Wild True Story Behind Good American Family

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Good American Family

Good American Family, out on Hulu, is inspired by the dramatic but real story of Natalia Grace, who lives with a rare form of dwarfism. In 2012, her adoptive parents said Grace was an adult who was posing as a child and had her age legally changed. The series examines why scrutiny grew over Grace’s age and identity.

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In Good American Family, Grey’s Anatomy’s Ellen Pompeo stars as Kristine Barnett, the woman who adopted a seven-year-old Natalia in 2010. At the time, Barnett was a rising star in the speakers’ circuit because of her son Jacob, a physics wiz with autism who made headlines for excelling at school when experts doubted his abilities. In the show, Kristine sees Natalia (Imogen Faith Reid) as her next project, and her husband, Michael (Mark Duplass), is ecstatic to finally have a daughter.

In 2012—both in real life and in the show—the Barnetts had Natalia’s age changed from 8 to 22 and moved her into an apartment to live on her own. Kristine and Michael Barnett were both charged with neglecting a dependent; Michael was acquitted, and the charges against Kristine were dropped. The real Natalia Grace and Michael Barnett both got to tell their sides of the story in the docu-series The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, the third season of which just aired in January and landed Natalia on the cover of the Jan. 13, 2025, issue of People magazine.

Here’s a look at a few of the biggest moments in Good American Family and how they match up with what Natalia and the Barnetts have said in past interviews.

What happened to Natalia Grace in the Barnetts’ house

In the first season of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Michael Barnett explains why his family wanted to adopt Natalia: “We wanted to help somebody who was in danger of never being loved.”

But both Natalia and the Barnetts have accused each other of being abusive. The Barnetts have said that Natalia terrorized them, while Natalia has maintained that they were impatient with her, as someone who lives with chronic pain and trauma.

At first, the family had a honeymoon period, vacationing at Disneyland with Natalia. But the minute she arrived in her new home, her new parents grew suspicious. In the first season of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Michael said Kristine gave Natalia her first bath in the new house and gasped when she saw Natalia had full pubic hair. He says Natalia admitted to having a period and hiding bloody underwear. About six months into living with the Barnetts, he says Natalia would try to urinate on her six-year-old sibling Ethan, defecate in the car and smear the waste onto the younger boy. He also claimed that she’d fling the door open when the car was in motion.

The Barnetts have said Natalia would take her brothers’ toys and throw them into the street, even threatening to kill them while they are sleeping. In the docu-series, Jacob Barnett says Natalia hoarded knives in her bedroom; Michael has said that he found Natalia at the edge of his bed holding a knife. Natalia confronts Michael about this story in the docu-series, arguing, “I can’t bend my fingers to even grip a knife.” She accuses the Barnetts of rehashing a similar scene from the 2009 horror movie Orphan. She claims that, while living with the Barnetts, she was hit with a belt and pepper-sprayed, according to People.

Good American Family weaves these stories into the plot. In one of the most dramatic scenes in the series, Kristine orders Natalia to clean the kitchen, and is later surprised when her cup of coffee tastes like cleaning fluid. Natalia is accused of trying to poison Kristine, while Natalia says she was having trouble cleaning the kitchen properly because of her short stature.

Natalia says in the docu-series that in real life, Kristine Barnett staged the poisoning. The moment ruptured any trust they might have had, says Jacob Barnett. “I can’t share a drink with someone, it’s rooted in this fear that Natalia is coming to poison us.” (Kristine Barnett did not participate in the docu-series or respond to the production’s request for comment).

Why was Natalia Grace’s age changed?

One of the biggest questions to this day is why the Barnetts changed Natalia’s age.

When the Barnetts adopted her in 2010, she was around seven years old, but they started to believe she was an adult because she had public hair and adult teeth. In Good American Family, Kristine makes it her mission to prove Natalia is an adult after noticing a bloody tampon on the floor of their home while she is taping a TV interview. She gets to work lining up doctors to prove Natalia is a 22-year-old adult, then gets her an apartment and makes her live on her own.

It’s true that an Indiana court did change Natalia Grace’s birth year from 2003 to 1989 in 2012, after a detective thought her birth certificate looked fake, according to Michael. Like in the show, the real Natalia was made to live on her own in an apartment. In the docu-series, Natalia opens up about how her apartments were never made fully accessible to her, as she couldn’t reach the stove, the shelves, or the mailbox, and didn’t have a phone she could use to call for help.

A neighbor named Cynthia Mans took her under her wing, and invited her to live in her house with her husband Antwon, a Christian pastor, and their 10 children. Natalia moved in with them and they looked after her, formally adopting her in 2023. The docu-series shows Natalia’s birth date being changed back to 2003, following a genetics test that concluded she’s approximately 22-years-old.

How Good American Family ends

The second season of the docu-series ends with Natalia confronting her adoptive father Michael Barnett. “I beat myself up for not being stronger,” he tells her. She says that he earned her forgiveness because he came on the show and apologized.

Good American Family ends with a version of this one-on-one conversation between Natalia and Michael. In the show, Natalia shows up at Michael’s house right after his acquittal and asks why he didn’t do more to help her. “I was a kid,” she says. “You were supposed to be my dad.” Michael tells her that he “didn’t have the strength.”

Then, Kristine and their son Jacob showed up to the house. Michael is caught off guard because he and Kristine are divorced. Indeed, in real life, they split in 2014. In the show, Kristine says there was a gas leak where she’s staying and asks Michael if they can stay with him. Michael says Jacob can, but not Kristine—making clear to Natalia that he is on her side. Jacob (Aaron Potter) turns to Natalia and apologizes for not doing more to stand up for her, and she tells him that it’s okay because he was also just a kid.

The show ends with Natalia surrounded by the siblings in her new adopted family after Michael has been acquitted. They read out loud the many positive statements about their sister on social media, suggesting that no matter what happened legally with the Barnetts, Natalia won in the court of public opinion.

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