The name Natalia Grace has been all over TV screens since 2023, with the Investigation Discovery docuseries, a second season, a third season, and then a full Hulu drama series, Good American Family, starring Ellen Pompeo. But behind every chapter of that story is a woman most viewers only ever see for a few minutes: Anna Volodymyrivna Gava, Natalia’s biological mother.
She’s not the villain. She’s not the hero. She’s something harder to categorise — a woman who made an agonising decision in desperate circumstances and has spent over two decades trying to reckon with it.
Here’s everything we actually know about her.
Who Is Anna Volodymyrivna Gava?
Natalia Grace was born on September 4, 2003, to Vadim “Vadik” Gava and Anna Volodymyrivna Gava of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Anna was born in Latvia on April 20, 1979, and grew up with her twin sister Tatyana before later moving to Ukraine.
Outside of her connection to Natalia’s story, Anna has lived a largely private life. She is not a public figure by choice. She only entered the spotlight because investigators, journalists, and documentary producers came looking for her — and because she eventually decided to speak.
Why Did She Give Natalia Up for Adoption?
This is the question that sits at the heart of everything, and Anna has answered it in multiple interviews over the years.
Her rationale, recorded at the orphanage at the time, was that the “child hav[ing] congenital defects” combined with being unmarried with a 4-year-old and “hav[ing] not enough money to raise another child” made it impossible to take her home.
When she eventually spoke publicly, the picture she painted was even more stark. Speaking via video link from Ukraine in the docuseries, Anna recalled the childbirth as “difficult” and said that when she regained consciousness after anaesthesia, a doctor told her, “There is no sense to take her home.” The doctor added that Natalia would never be able to walk and would be of very short stature.
Anna also revealed that surgery to help her daughter would have cost $100,000, which she could not afford. After persuasion from the doctors and her own mother, she agreed to give Natalia up to the orphanage. “Although I initially did not want to leave my child, I knew there was nothing I could do to help her. That was the last day I saw my daughter’s little legs and arms.”
Reading those words, it’s difficult to read her as simply abandoning her child. The pressure she was under, from medical professionals and family alike, was immense. That doesn’t make the outcome less painful for Natalia, but it does complicate the narrative.
The Role Anna Played in Proving Natalia’s Age
Here’s where Anna’s story intersects with something genuinely significant: the legal battle over Natalia’s true age.
When Natalia’s second adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, had her birth year legally changed from 2003 to 1989, effectively declaring her a 30-year-old woman, Anna Gava became one of the key figures who could disprove it.
If Natalia’s court-assigned birth date of 1989 were correct, Gava would have given birth to Natalia at ten years of age. The absurdity of that alone tells you something.
In 2020, an investigator tracked down Anna through her sister Tatyana. When Tatyana called Anna during the meeting, Anna could be heard shouting down the phone: “My God, why can’t they leave me alone?” — and legal analyst Beth Karas noted that this reaction indicated Anna had been “going through this saga for 17 years,” which, doing the maths from 2020, supports a birth year of 2003.
Thanks to DNA testing and documentation from Anna Gava, it’s now confirmed that Natalia was born on September 4, 2003. Her legal age has been fully restored, with her passport and other records updated accordingly — a development revealed in Season 3 of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, which dropped in January 2025.
In other words, Anna’s cooperation with investigators helped correct one of the more bizarre legal injustices in recent American memory.
What Anna Said When She Found Out About the Neglect
When the full details of what happened to Natalia — being left alone in an apartment as a child — reached Anna, her reaction was immediate and raw. “When I found out what happened, that she was abandoned at the age of 13, alone in an apartment… I was simply shocked,” Anna said in a 2022 interview featured in the docuseries. The interview was cut short because it was conducted at the height of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Mykolaiv being one of the cities significantly affected by the conflict.
Does Anna Want a Relationship With Natalia?
Yes, consistently and openly. In a solo interview during The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks (which premiered January 2, 2024), Anna acknowledged that 19 years apart was a “significant period” of time but said, “I would like her to be with me. I think about it all the time. Frankly, I would like her to be here with me.”
Natalia’s response has been measured but firm. “I understand you want to see me, but my family is here. Anna gave birth to me and gave me away the same day, but these people raised me,” Natalia said in the same series.
That’s an honest and fair position. Natalia isn’t obligated to have a relationship with a woman she never knew, no matter how much Anna regrets the past. Legal analyst Beth Karas, who features heavily in the docuseries, put it plainly: “Natalia has no relationship with her biological mother at all. I mean, this is the woman who gave her up.”
The desire for reunion is there on Anna’s side. The willingness, on Natalia’s side, is still unresolved.
Where Is Anna Volodymyrivna Gava Now?
Apart from her appearances in the docuseries, Anna has mostly lived a private life. She became a grandmother when her eldest daughter gave birth in February 2020. Her life in Mykolaiv was likely significantly disrupted by the escalation of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, as the city was heavily affected by the conflict.
As of mid-2025, there has been no new confirmed reporting on Anna’s current circumstances or whereabouts. Given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and her preference for privacy, that is not surprising.
Why Anna Isn’t in Good American Family
The Hulu drama series, which premiered March 19, 2025, and starred Ellen Pompeo as Kristine Barnett, did not feature Anna’s story. The series focuses exclusively on Natalia’s life in the US, starting from her adoption by the Barnetts, and very little is known about Anna beyond the core facts of her giving Natalia up at the recommendation of a doctor due to her disability.
That limited on-screen presence is not a reflection of Anna’s importance to the story. It’s a reflection of how little documentary access she’s chosen to give, and how much of her life before and after 2003 remains undocumented.
The Bigger Picture
Anna Volodymyrivna Gava is not easy to categorise, and that’s probably the most honest thing you can say about her. She made a decision under extreme pressure, in poverty, with a medical establishment telling her there was no hope. She has expressed regret. She provided the evidence that helped restore her daughter’s legal identity.
And she is still, as far as anyone knows, a woman in a war-affected city in southern Ukraine, hoping that one day her daughter will reach out.
Whether that happens is entirely up to Natalia. But at least now, for the first time in years, both women are operating under the same set of facts about who Natalia is and when she was born.
That’s not nothing.
FAQ
Who is Anna Volodymyrivna Gava? She is the biological mother of Natalia Grace, born in Latvia on April 20, 1979, and based in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. She placed Natalia in an orphanage shortly after her birth in 2003 due to her daughter’s rare form of dwarfism and her own financial constraints.
Did Anna Gava prove Natalia Grace’s age? Yes. DNA testing and documentation provided by Anna, along with Ukrainian birth and hospital records, confirmed Natalia was born on September 4, 2003. Her legal birth year, which had been changed to 1989 by a US court, has since been corrected.
Has Anna Gava met Natalia Grace as an adult? No confirmed reunion has taken place. Anna has expressed a desire to reconnect, but as of the most recent reporting, Natalia has said she is not ready to open that door.
Why isn’t Anna Gava in Good American Family? The Hulu series focuses on Natalia’s life in America, starting from her adoption by the Barnetts. Anna’s story is largely set in Ukraine before that period, and she has not chosen to be a prominent media figure.
Where is Anna Gava now? As of mid-2025, no recent confirmed updates are available. She was living in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, which was significantly impacted by Russia’s invasion from 2022 onwards. She has largely stayed out of the public eye.
