- Natalia Grace Barnett and the couple with whom she now lives sat down with Dr. Phil for an interview airing on Thursday.
- Natalia, who has a rare form of dwarfism that makes it difficult to gauge her age, was thought to be somewhere between 6 and 8 when Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted her in 2010.
- The Barnetts later claimed Natalia was a mentally disturbed adult that terrorized their family before they abandoned her in Indiana to move to Canada.
- Through tears, Natalia Grace told Dr. Phil that she is, in fact, a 16-year-old girl, and not the mentally disturbed adult her former adoptive parents claim her to be.
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The Ukrainian orphan at the center of an adoption scandal in Indiana is breaking her silence this week in an interview with Dr. Phil.
Natalia Grace Barnett and the couple who she now lives with sat down with Dr. Phil for a segment airing on Thursday. Through tears, Natalia Grace insisted that she's actually a 16-year-old girl and not the mentally disturbed adult her former adoptive parents claim her to be.
Natalia has a rare form of dwarfism that makes it difficult to gauge her age. She was initially thought to be between 6 and 8 years old when Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted her in 2010.
In September, the Barnetts were accused of legally changing Natalia's age to from 8 to 22 in 2012, and moving to Canada without her. Prosecutors say she was a child at the time.
But Kristine Barnett told Daily Mail Online that Natalia was a "sociopath" and a "con-artist" who was actually an adult woman who terrorized their family.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian woman claiming to be Natalia's birth mother, has told Daily Mail TV that she was forced to give up Natalia 16 years ago, when the girl was an infant.
The family who took Natalia in after the Barnetts moved to Canada believe that Natalia is a child and treat her as such.
Natalia denied being an adult in a clip of her interview with Dr. Phil that the TV show sent to Insider. In the preview clip, Dr. Phil challenges Natalia on the claims and asks why the Barnetts would say such things.
"I guess it really comes down to whether or not you are an evil psychopath demon who's come over here to kill everybody," he says.
Through tears, Natalia tells him: "It's not true."
Natalia's full interview with Dr. Phil will air on Thursday.
- Read more:
- The Indiana couple accused of abandoning their adopted Ukrainian orphan daughter say they fear for their lives now
- A woman who claims she's the Ukrainian orphan's biological mom says the girl is a child
- A Ukrainian orphan at the center of an adoption scandal might be an adult. Here are 8 adults who were caught posing as children.
- The Ukrainian orphan accused of being an adult hung out at a drug recovery house and took adult education classes after her adopted parents moved to Canada
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