Yahoo News Betsy Brandt Is Pushed to the Limit After Adopting a 'Psychopathic Liar' in Lifetime’s “The Bad Orphan” (Exclusive)
The new Lifetime movie, which was seemingly inspired by the adoption story of Natalia Grace, premieres June 22 and PEOPLE has an exclusive look at the trailer
Betsy Brandt is struggling to decipher fact from fiction in the upcoming Lifetime movie, The Bad Orphan.
The fictional film — which is seemingly inspired by the adoption story of Natalia Grace — chronicles “Jessica (Brandt) and Karl (Mark Taylor), loving parents to Rhiannon (Eve Edwards), who after years of trying to add to their family are elated to adopt Gabby (Chloe Coco Chapman), an 8-year-old orphan born with personal challenges,” according to an official synopsis.
“Their ideas of a perfect family come into question when they discover that Gabby is a troubled little girl, and the family begins to believe things aren’t what they seem,” reads the official description.
“As the unsettling behavior of their ‘child’ worsens and lies are uncovered, cracks in the family dynamic form with Jessica increasingly becoming concerned that adopted daughter Gabby is a threat to their family. Is Gabby just an innocent little girl? Or is there more to her story?”
Lifetime
Mark Taylor and Betsy Brandt in "The Bad Orphan"In a trailer for the upcoming Lifetime movie, which PEOPLE can exclusively debut, Karl explains, “We’ve been trying to adopt a baby. The agency suggested an 8-year-old child with special needs.”
While meeting Gabby for the first time, Jessica remains hopeful, saying, “Maybe this girl can be what we’ve been waiting for.”
However, things quickly take a turn for the worse as Jessica admits that she doesn't “get” her daughter as they argue over bath time.
Lifetime
Chloe Coco Chapman in "The Bad Orphan"“She doesn’t seem like an 8-year-old,” Jessica reveals as Gabby is seen getting close to an older boy in a letterman jacket.
However, her husband doesn’t think it’s as bad as Jessica believes, saying, “She is a troubled kid. Not a master criminal” but his wife later insists, “This girl’s been a psychopathic liar from the beginning.”
Karl doesn’t want to believe that Gabby could be the problem, telling his wife, “We can’t be sure she was behind it.”
Lifetime
Betsy Brandt in "The Bad Orphan"“How many benefits of the doubt are going to give this girl?" Jessica asks him before she becomes enraged and yells at Gabby "you’re gonna kill me" as she breaks down in tears.
“You’re such a good manipulator,” Jessica concludes.
Lifetime
From left: Mark Taylor and Betsy Brandt in "The Bad Orphan"The fictional movie seemingly has parallels to the adoption story of Natalia Grace. Michael and Kristine Barnett claimed when they adopted Natalia in 2010 they believed they were adopting a 6-year-old girl. Soon after, they claimed they became suspicious of her age, leading to a bombshell claim: that Natalia, who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal, was merely posing as a child and was really an adult woman with sinister intentions.
The Barnetts alleged Natalia tried to harm them and their biological children. The couple claimed that Natalia not only tried to electrocute Kristine but attempted to poison Kristine's coffee and placed clear thumb tacks on the stairs face up so that they would step on them. In 2012, two years after Natalia was adopted by the Barnetts, the couple petitioned Marion County Probate Court to have her age legally changed to 22, changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989.
The following year, the couple moved with their three sons to Canada without her, leaving her alone in an apartment in Lafayette. The Barnetts, who later divorced, were charged with neglect of a dependent. Prosecutors couldn't charge the couple with neglect of a child because of Natalia's court-ordered age change.
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The Bad Orphan premieres June 22 on Lifetime.
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