Kriti Mehrotra
With Hulu’s ‘Good American Family’ revisiting the case of Natalia Grace from all possible perspectives, we get a limited drama series that can only be described as baffling and intriguing. That’s because it underscores everything from how the Barnett family was excited to welcome a little girl into their lives to their alleged efforts to connect with her to their alleged eventual abandonment of her. And in the middle of it all was the family’s patriarch, Michael Barnett, who has since been tried, convicted, and acquitted on four counts of neglect of a dependant and claimed to be a victim of abuse himself.
Michael Barnett’s Excitement to Be a Girl Dad Quickly Turned to Horror
As a native of Indiana and a family-oriented man through and through, it was always Michael’s dream to have a big brood of his own one day. Therefore, when he came across Kristine, fell in love with her, and realized she was the woman he had always dreamt of, he didn’t hesitate to start a family with her. They welcomed their first child, Jacob “Jake” Barnett, in May 1998, followed by two more boys, Wesley and Ethan, only for their world to turn upside down in 2000. That’s when their eldest was diagnosed with autism, resulting in a lot of their time and effort going towards his care, all while they managed their careers, their own relationship, and raising their two other sons. Nevertheless, they were a team.
The only thing the Barnett’s seemed to be missing was a daughter, resulting in them deciding to go down the adoption route, which is how Natalia Grace came into their lives. Born in Ukraine, Michael and Kristine knew that she had a rare form of dwarfism, but they still decided to go through it under the belief they could make things work. It was April 26, 2010, when the adoption was finalized, and they excitedly brought Natalia home, only for their expectations to soon go out the window. That’s because they were faced with not just a child with special medical requirements but also behavioral issues.
Michael still remembers that his wife at the time was convinced that the girl they had adopted was not 6 years old because she had pubic hair and her periods, a claim Natalia denies to this day. But what’s worse is what he remembers witnessing – Natalia threatening to harm their three sons, poisoning Kristine’s coffee, and once even going as far as to push her into an electric fence. However, arguably, what scared him the most was when he woke up in the middle of the night to find Natalia at the foot of his and Kristine’s bed with a knife in her hands. It was then that he realized that something was terribly wrong.
Michael Barnett Was Accused of Neglect in 2019
It was in 2012, two years after Michael and Kristine adopted Natalia, that they filed a petition to have her birth year legally changed from 2003 to 1989, making her 23 at the time. Then, they set her up all alone in a rental apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, before relocating to Ontario, Canada, where their eldest, a science prodigy teenager, had been accepted into university. They remained on as Natalia’s legal guardians owing to her condition, but they rarely kept in touch with her even after they moved back to Indiana in late 2013 after an unspecified “incident impacting the children,” per court records.
Michael and Kristine even separated and filed for divorce in February 2014, which was finalized four years later, but by then, Natalia was no longer in the picture for them anymore. Therefore, in September 2019, after some concerned individuals came to know of Natalia, noticed the way she was living, and realized she wasn’t entirely capable of being on her own, the former couple was criminally charged. Michael was accused of one count each of neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent causing bodily injury, neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury and conspiracy to neglect a dependent.
Michael did turn himself in to the authorities before bonding out, but the whole case still felt strange to him because he allegedly believed only Kristine was responsible for the neglect. Yet, there were some allegations against him, too, resulting in his facing trial in October 2022, which resulted in him being acquitted of all criminal charges. Natalia has always maintained she lied about her age only after the Barnett’s legally changed her name, meaning she has always maintained she was just a troubled child when she lived with them. As for Michael, he believes they “were all abused” in one way or another.
Michael Barnett is Trying to Move On From the Past
Following Michael’s acquittal, it appears as if he has chosen to remain well away from prying eyes so as to focus on his own family. After all, from what we can tell, he has since remarried and settled down with his new wife in the place that has been his home for decades – Indianapolis, Indiana. However, he has since spoken about the past to Natalia herself, and in Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,’ he goes as far as to indicate that all the blame was to be placed on his ex-wife. As per reports, he once told Natalia during a private conversation that they had “the same monster” in Kristine but later stormed out when the young girl’s new guardians asked him to stop swearing and talk calmly.
Furthermore, since then, there have also been allegations that Michael not only “watched” as Kristine abused Natalia but was also abusive himself, only for Kristine to defend him. In a social media post in 2024, she penned, “He did not abuse Natalia, he tried very hard to make a good home for her and provide for her… Certainly, his own mental health had been affected by us having adopted Natalia and the fact that we tried so hard to help her and could not, in the end, succeed at that.” Since then, Michael has conceded that his wish now is to “move on” and do his best “to not think about” everything that happened in the past so as to focus on his new life and family. He does hope Natalia “finds happiness” because that’s what he has been striving for too.
Read More: Jacob Barnett: Where is Kristine and Michael Barnett’s Son Now?
