Dr. Phil Interviewed Natalia Grace, The Ukrainian Girl Who A Family Adopted And Accused Of Lying About Her Age 

Dr. Phil will take advantage of anyone. But primarily he’s taking advantage of his audience of buffoons who think he’s really a doctor, or the ones who just can’t look away from mess and crave to see a “Cash me ousside” moment. I don’t know if his next guest will end up with a catchphrase and a rap career, but it will certainly be something to witness.

Dr. Phil got Natalia Grace to sit in his box of exploitation. She’s the girl from Ukraine who was adopted by an Indiana family, got her birth certificate changed to say she’s 22, and later left behind in an apartment as they moved to Canada. The parents are now facing charges, but they claim that Natalia Grace wasn’t the 8-year-old girl they thought they adopted and was really a scheming adult who lied to them about being a child and tried to murder them! (Insert obligatory Orphan reference here.)

People says the unscrupulous Dr. Phil continues to have no scruples and is speaking with the girl at the centre of the “Is-She/Isn’t-She A Murderous Adult Woman?” story. This whole tale was covered by Michael K and Allison in the Dlisted podcast, but here’s the quick backstory: Michael Barnett, and his wife, Kristine, adopted a little girl, Natalia, from Ukraine who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal. Michael told the story of the adoption a few times, telling UK morning show This Morning that an adoption agency reached out to them after a failed adoption from Haiti due to the earthquake.

Natalia apparently started showing weird signs from the get–allegedly doing weird/sociopathic shit, like putting thumb tacs on the stairs, and they found knives under her bed. He alleges Natalia would try to harm the family–one time throwing their young sons’ belongings into traffic–and allegedly she told her adoptive parents:

“I’m trying to kill the boys.”

So her age was changed legally after a variety of psychiatric and physical evaluations which determined her to be 22 and she lived on her own. The Barnetts, who are now divorced, claim they checked on her from time to time. But other tests claim that Natalia really is a child and her biological mother says that she really is 16 years old today. The Barnetts were charged with child abandonment.

So clearly we need to hear the other side of this mess and Dr. Phil is the one to give it to us. This Thursday, Natalia and her new family will be the guests on Dr. Phil and she will tell her side. She says she is not a grown woman who tried to kill her adoptive family, and is in fact a 16-year-old-girl.

In typical Dr. Phil fashion: the preview promises to give you all the information and hot tea straight from Natalia whilst simultaneously showing absolutely zero clips of her speaking and instead filling the promo with rapid-fire, aggressive questions from Dr. Phil which are meant to be “deep” or “challenging” but just sound like him yelling obvious ponderings.

Kristine Barnett sold her story to The Daily Mail, so I get that Natalia Grace wants to get a check too while telling her side, but Dr. Phil!?! If she really is 16 years old, then putting her in front of Dr. Phil’s face is definitely a form of child abuse.

Pic: Dr. Phil – OWN Network