Natalia Grace has filed a defamation lawsuit against Disney and Hulu for allegedly making her seem “deceptive, dangerous [and] manipulative” in the series Good American Family.
Per documents obtained by Us Weekly on Friday, March 20, Grace, 22, filed without a lawyer, in which she accuses Disney and Hulu of libel by implication and defamation, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Grace claims Good American Family may have led viewers to believe she was “deceptive, dangerous, manipulative, dishonest, not truly a child and responsible for acts of abuse, violence or attempted violence.” (TMZ was the first to report the news.)
Each episode of Good American Family included a disclaimer that the show “reflects and dramatizes multiple conflicting points of view, and does not intend to suggest that any particular allegation is the whole truth,” Grace argues that the onscreen message did not “meaningfully identify” which elements of the show were dramatized as part of the series’ “sensationalized and misleading narrative.”
“Good American Family is not a fictional story about invented persons,” the docs state. “It is a dramatized series built around [Grace’s] real-life identity, name, history, and public case. It uses real people, real allegations and real public controversy involving [Grace].”
Good American Family was executive produced by Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo, who also played Natalia Grace’s former foster mother, Kristine Barnett. The series examined accusations that the Barnetts had Grace’s legal birth date changed from 2003 to 1989 in 2012 and later abandoned her to live on her own because they felt she was dangerous.
Grace took particular issue with the format of Good American Family. Early episodes presented Kristine’s theories that Grace was lying about her age and had plans to harm her adoptive family, while the second half of the show examined Grace’s recollections of enduring child abuse.
She argues that the format of Good American Family may have led some viewers to believe she actually committed acts such as “attempted murder-type conduct, violence towards others, dangerous conduct, manipulative conduct and other serious harmful acts,” which Grace vehemently denies. The suit alleges that some of the violent acts Grace was accused of were “physically impossible” due to her age and size.
Grace also claims in the filings that she has endured “substantial reputational injury” and faced public ridicule since the release of Good American Family, including people calling her a “scammer, psycho [and a] sociopath.” She is seeking an unspecified sum from Disney and Hulu for damages.
Us Weekly has reached out to both companies for comment.
Grace was played by actress Imogen Faith Reid in Good American Family. When the show was released in 2025, Reid, 28, exclusively told Us that she fought for Grace’s side of the story to be represented in Good American Family.
“Playing my own version of Natalia, I really wanted to fight for her voice to be heard and for this story to just give her so much justice and empowerment,” Reid told Us. “I was so passionate about playing her and I really fought for her.”
Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia Grace on “Good American Family.” Ser Baffo/Hulu/Disney; Courtesy Everett Collection
She added, “I made sure to just really fight for her. I was really passionate about it and it was an honor to play her.”
Reid prepared for Good American Family by watching the 2023 Investigation Discovery documentary series The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, which featured extensive interviews with Grace about her allegations of neglect against the Barnetts.
“It’s almost like playing different roles [based on the perspective of each episode]. The Natalia we’re seeing [in early episodes is] from Kristine’s perspective, she’s always a step ahead. She’s manipulative and she knows what she’s doing,” Reid explained to Us. “As an actor, for me playing that part, it was really fun for me as my first TV role to actually play something like that. Because you have to always be switched on. You have to know what you’re doing.”
She added, “When we switched to Natalia’s perspective, that was obviously my favorite perspective to play with because I was then able to really slow things down, fight for that justice and let my voice be heard. It was my character’s perspective, so I was able to just let the scenes play [out] and it was amazing.”
Per The Curious Case, Grace — who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita — was born in Ukraine in 2003. She was adopted by American couple Dyan and Gary Ciccone, but they ultimately relinquished parental rights due to her allegedly disruptive behavior.
Christina Hendricks revealed whether she contacted Natalia Grace‘s adoptive mother Cynthia Mans after being cast to play her on Good American Family. “I did not speak to Cynthia. That wasn’t something that was even on the page for us,” Hendricks, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly. “This is my interpretation, so I don’t know if other […]
The Barnetts adopted Grace in 2010 but later accused her of secretly masquerading as a child. They allegedly had Grace’s age legally adjusted so she was an adult in the eyes of the law and then left her on her own in an apartment so they could move to Canada with their three sons.
Kristine and her ex-husband Michael were both charged with child neglect offenses in 2019. Michael was acquitted in October 2022, while charges against Kristine were dismissed in 2023.
In 2023, Natalia Grace had her legal birth year restored to 2003 when medical analysis proved she was indeed a child at the time of her adoption by the Barnetts.