In Episode 6 of “Good American Family,” we meet the new adoptive parents of Natalia Grace: Antwon and Cynthia Mans.
The Manses were inspired by the couple who befriended the real Grace in 2013 after she was left alone in an apartment by her former adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett.
The Barnetts accused Grace, who has a form of dwarfism, of being an adult woman masquerading as a child when they adopted her. Grace always denied this claim, and subsequent medical and DNA tests have shown Grace was not lying about her age.
Christine Hendricks, who plays Cynthia Mans in the Hulu drama, says she “almost can’t believe” the show is based on true events.
“The script itself was already so amazingly written, and I thought they did a really great job (where) halfway through you go, ‘Wait … I thought I knew what was going on,’ and bam, all sudden everything shifts,” she told TODAY.com earlier this month.
Hendricks called the character of Cynthia “complicated and interesting” and said there are “some moments where you start to question what Cynthia’s intentions are.”
“But I think that’s one of the things that I like about this show is you really have to pay attention to each character, because nothing is quite as it seems,” she continued.
Hendricks says she approached the character of Cynthia as “a person who was trying to nurture her and trying to protect (Grace).”
“I think that people are complicated and I think even if you are trying to help someone, and if you are trying to extend that, there can be all sorts of situations in your life that it’s not just going to be one pure thing,” she added.
The real Cynthia Mans has discussed her relationship with Grace in the past, including in a 2019 “Dr. Phil” interview and in the Investigation Discovery docuseries, “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.”
Keep reading to learn more about the real-life Cynthia Mans and where she is now.
Who are Cynthia and Antwon Mans?
Cynthia and Antwon Mans are a couple who befriended Natalia Grace and ended up formally adopting her in 2023, according to a document from the Court of Appeals of Indiana viewed by TODAY.com.
They are now based in Tennessee, according to public records viewed by TODAY.com, but lived in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, when they first met Grace in 2013, per the document from the Court of Appeals of Indiana.
The Manses have described Antwon Mans as a bishop on social media. He and his wife often share posts with a religious theme on The Mans Family Instagram page.
The couple have welcomed several children in addition to Natalia, some of whom are adopted.
“Me and my husband adopted these kids. It’s like, who would do it if you don’t? Who will help if you don’t?” Cynthia Mans said in a 2019 “Dr. Phil” interview. “We’ve done this with other people as well. Natalia’s not the first person we’ve brought in our house like that.”
Mans described in the same interview how she and her husband first encountered Grace. She says a concerned neighbor reached out to them shortly after Grace’s former adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, left Grace living alone in an apartment.
“My friend called me and was like, ‘You need to come down here right away.’ So I go over there and she’s like, she’s telling me she’s 22. I mean, look at her, she’s not 22,” Mans said in the “Dr. Phil” interview.
Grace said in the same interview that she was 8 years old when the Barnetts left her and moved to Canada with their biological son. She told Dr. Phil she had already been living alone in a different apartment for about a year before being moved to the apartment where she met the Manses, which the document from the Court of Appeals of Indiana also states.
“She took me over to her house and it was definitely her apartment. She had a bed in there, she had a TV, she had some boxed food in her freezer,” Cynthia Mans recalled in the “Dr. Phil” interview.
“I was like, ‘Well, you know, I have a couple kids at home. Come on down, you can play with them, talk with us, whatever,’” she continued. “So she came to our house and hung out down there, and she never left. She’s been with us ever since.”
Mans added that she believes the Barnetts tried to change Grace’s age and falsely portray her as having psychological issues because they viewed her as a “burden.”
“It’s terrible that they’re trying to make her out to be this monster,” she said.
What happened between Natalia Grace and Cynthia and Antwon Mans?
Grace lived with the Manses for about a decade. During that time, Cynthia Mans says Grace formed a close bond with her adoptive siblings.
“We have other children. We have a grandson. She does nothing but love her siblings and her nephew,” Mans said in the family’s 2019 “Dr. Phil” interview.
Mans said Grace had been in the delivery room when one of her brothers was born. She also said that over the years, Grace helped care for her younger siblings, giving them baths, changing diapers, and making up bottles.
Cynthia Mans and her husband charged Grace $250 per month in rent, Mans testified during the 2022 trial of Michael and Kristine Barnett, who faced multiple charges related to their neglect of Grace, according to the document from the Indiana Court of Appeals. (Michael Barnett was later acquitted and the charges against Kristine Barnett were dropped. TODAY.com has previously reached out to Michael and Kristine Barnett for comment).
The Manses filed a court petition seeking guardianship of Grace in 2016. This petition was unsuccessful, but they were eventually able to formally adopt Grace in 2023.
In recent years, the Manses were shown supporting Grace as she fought to prove that she had been a little girl when she was adopted by the Barnetts, not a grown woman pretending to be a child.
In one scene from a multi-part Investigation Discovery documentary “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” which came out between 2023 and 2025, Antwon Mans is shown offering moral support to Grace as she learns the results of a DNA test confirming her approximate age.
He is also shown consoling Grace following a confrontation between her and her former adoptive father, Michael Barnett.
What happened between Natalia Grace and the Manses?
While it appears the Manses once shared a close bond with Grace, their relationship seemed to sour in 2023.
That year, the couple called the producers of “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” and said there was a “situation” with Grace.
“Something ain’t right with Natalia,” Antwon Mans said on the call, a recording of which was included in a later installment of the documentary.
“Natalia does not have emotions for nothing but herself,” he also said. “We’re done. We’re done with her.”
Cynthia Mans claimed Grace was being manipulated by her boyfriend, a man called Neil living in the U.K. whom Grace had met online.
“This guy just completely flipped Natalia’s mind against her family,” Cynthia Mans said in the documentary. “And he convinced Natalia that what he was saying was right and we were wrong.”
Neil reached out to the DePauls, a couple with dwarfism in New York, who had considered adopting Grace before the Barnetts. Nicole DePaul told People and said he felt Natalia was in danger.
“It was probably a month of communicating with him daily and he was communicating with her — then I knew we had to do something,” Nicole DePaul told People.
In the documentary “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” friends and neighbors alleged that the Manses had physically abused Grace and other adoptive children,
In the docuseries, Grace declined to comment on these accusations. When a producer asked Grace if she was hit by the Manses, she said, “Not anything crazy. Maybe a little pop on the butt or something.”
The Manses have not responded to earlier requests for comment from TODAY.com about the allegations raised in the documentary.
In late 2023, Grace left the Manses’ home and moved in with Nicole and Vince DePaul, and their teenage daughter, Mackenzie, in upstate New York.
She has lived with the DePauls since then, and has said she is working on becoming more independent.
“It’s been a big learning curve for me. For the most part, I’ve made peace. It is definitely a blessing to be alive today,” Grace told People in January. “And there’s nothing I can do to change the past.”
Where is Cynthia Mans now?
It is unclear whether Cynthia Mans is in contact with Natalia Grace today.
In April, Mans appeared to address the way her family’s story is portrayed on “Good American Family.”
“Amazing how ppl take 30 minutes of tv and cast judgment on my family,” reads an April 3 postfrom a TikTok page called Cynthia Mans and Fam, which is linked to the Mans family’s Instagram page.
“We never harmed a hair on Natalyahs head,” the post continues. “That little girl we took care of her for 11 years. I am the one who seen her took her in and loved her despite what others said. Yall on these apps need to think before you open your mouth.”
In January 2024, the same TikTok page appearing to belong to Cynthia Mans shared an updateabout Grace’s social media activity.
“Hello everyone. This is no longer Natalyah Mans page,” the post reads. “She has her own page now. I wanted to put this out there again so no one thinks I’m trying to get followers by using her name. I appreciate you all.”
The Mans family’s Instagram page has not been updated since 2023, when the family shared a Thanksgiving photo of Grace and their other children.
Several earlier photos of Grace are still up on the page, including one selfie from August 2023 showing Grace and Cynthia Mans posing for a selfie.
“God is doing His thing!!!🥰🥰🙏❤️,” reads the caption, along with the hashtags #mommydaughterlove and #bestfriends.
