Natalia Grace Has ‘Dream Come True’ Picture Shoot for PEOPLE

The within the closing episode, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Closing Chapter delivers an thrilling twist: Natalia Grace’s cowl shoot with PEOPLE journal . “This looks like a once-in-a-lifetime alternative,” she says, her voice brimming with pleasure on digicam, as a photographer asks her to pose for the digicam.

“I’m actually simply making an attempt to take management of my life and cease letting different individuals management it. I really feel like I’m changing into this new individual,” Natalia provides. “This new model feels wonderful—feels free.”

The liberty she speaks of is the results of a years-long battle to regain management of her narrative, a narrative that has been formed by others at almost each flip for over twenty years.

She’s referring, partially, to her adoptive mother and father, Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans, who started questioning her conduct simply six months after changing into authorized guardians of the 21-year-old with a uncommon type of dwarfism. The Manses had taken Natalia into their care in 2013, however tensions escalated after they adopted her in 2023.

Very like the sooner seasons of the collection, which centered on Natalia’s complicated relationship along with her earlier adoptive mother and father, Michael and Kristine Barnett, this chapter sees her in battle along with her third adoptive household.

However this time, she turns to Vincent and Nicole DePaul, a husband and spouse with dwarfism who had beforehand tried to undertake her in 2009. Now, they provide her a method out, serving to her escape what the present claims is ongoing abuse by the hands of the Manses. (A number of makes an attempt by Folks to succeed in the Manses and their legal professional for remark went unanswered.)

Three days earlier than Christmas in 2023, Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie drove from their residence in upstate New York to decide Natalia up in the midst of the night time at a church in Nashville, TN, the place the Manses relocated. Since then, Natalia has been dwelling with the DePauls in New York.

What wasn’t proven within the collection is the emotional toll Natalia confronted whereas on set for the finale. Midway by the day, her nervousness gave method to panic. Her eyes welled with tears, fogging her black-rimmed glasses. Moments later, she locked herself in a rest room on the rented warehouse in New York, shouting, “Everybody get out,” as she grappled with a panic assault. After just a few tense minutes, she emerged, her respiratory regular, her composure regained.

In her first interview for the reason that present’s debut in 2023, Natalia sat down with PEOPLE to share her aspect of the story—one in all survival after years of trauma. She was at instances cryptic, nervous, and avoidant, but in addition cheerful and bubbly when talking about her hopes for the longer term.

“Now I wish to take management of my life, seize a maintain of my life and steer it the place I wish to go,” she says on digicam. She acknowledges the labels which have haunted her for years, together with the portrayal of her as a “homicide bloodbath” or “sociopath,” and seeks to clear the air.

“I’m only a regular lady with goals, like being on the cowl of PEOPLE,” she says. “It is a once-in-a-lifetime factor. I simply really feel like individuals having the ability to see the story and encourage them to know that they will do no matter they need after they put their minds to it.”

For years, Natalia has been the topic of intense scrutiny, leaving each investigators and viewers in a state of confusion. As authorized professional Beth Karas wonders in The Closing Chapter, “Was Natalia a toddler or an grownup? Was she a sociopathic villain, or was she a misunderstood, abused sufferer?”

“All through this complete saga, we tried to separate the reality from the lies,” Beth Karas displays within the closing episode. “It wasn’t at all times straightforward to determine who we may belief. It’s like everybody tried to show Natalia into one thing she’s not, as an alternative of making an attempt to determine who she actually is. However Natalia fought to talk her fact.”

Now, along with her fact laid naked, Natalia says she is contented. “It has been an incredible feeling to know that my story — it impressed individuals,” she says on digicam.

“Simply seeing what I went by and even somebody with my incapacity — you are able to do something you set your thoughts to. You may get by something that life throws at you,” she says. “On the finish of the day, one thing good occurred from it. It is time to re-write my story.”

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Closing Chapter premiered January 6 and January 7 on Investigation Discovery and streams on Max.