The biological mother of the adopted ‘child’ who was deemed to be a 22-year-old woman by a judge has finally revealed the real age of her daughter.
Natalia Grace first gained popularity when she appeared on Dr. Phil in 2019, claiming that her adoptive parents Kristine and Michael Barnett left her to fend for herself at the age of 6.
But the Indiana couple defended their decision and alleged that their adopted daughter was just pretending to be a child, adding that she had threatened to kill them and their biological children.
The parents then concluded that Natalia was a woman with a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal.
Prosecutors could not charge the pair with child neglect due to Natalia’s court-ordered age change.
The parents are now featured in a documentary titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace by Investigation Discovery, where they shared further claims about the adopted ‘child.’
In the docuseries, Natalia’s birth mother Anna Gava revealed that her daughter was born on September 4, 2003, at 6:25 am in Maternity Hospital No. 1.
“She is my biological daughter,” Gava said. “This means that Natalia would be 19 years old today.”
The mother also recalled experiencing a ‘difficult’ birth with her baby and insisted that Natalia was just a child when she was put up for adoption.
“When I regained consciousness, after anesthesia, the next day the doctor came and said there is no sense to take her home. They said that she won’t be able to walk at all and she will be of very short stature.”
Gava also claimed how she was told it would cost $100,000 for surgery and she did not have money at that time.
“I didn’t initially want to leave her but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. ‘You are young,’ they said, ‘You are 24 years old. Don’t ruin your life, you will have other children,’” she went on.
Gava said in tears that she “listened to the doctors and left her instead of keeping her. All this time, all those years, I’ve been thinking about her, what is her life like what is she doing and everything like this.
“[Natalia] was promised piles of gold and it turned out the opposite.”
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