"Grey's Anatomy" writer admits to lying about having cancer, brother's suicide

Dec 12 2022, 9:50 pm

A key writer on the long-running hit show Grey’s Anatomy has admitted to lying about having cancer, nine months after Disney began an investigation into her claims.

Back in March, The Ankler published a damning article about all the deceptive public claims made by Elisabeth R. Finch. Disney and Shondaland had started investigating Finch for her lies, and she resigned before it got too deep.

Now, the publication has followed up with an intimate interview with the TV writer, who reportedly shaved her head to look like she was undergoing chemotherapy and even taped a fake catheter to her arm. She was prompted to admit the truth.

“I’ve never had any form of cancer,” Finch told interviewer Peter Kiefer. “When you get wrapped up in a lie, you forget who you told — what you said to this person and whether this person knows that thing — and that’s the world where you can get caught.”

Finch was hired by the Grey’s Anatomy team in 2014 and lied about having been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer — chondrosarcoma — back in 2012. She was 34 at the time.

The diagnosis was just the beginning of a trail of lies, which Finch boldly told her team and the public through long articles written for major magazines, such as Elle and Hollywood Reporter.

In these articles, Finch said she had to undergo an abortion as she could not carry a pregnancy to term due to the illness. She also told colleagues that she had lost a kidney and bone tissue.

It all began when Finch received a ton of sympathy and love due to a knee injury and subsequent surgery in 2007. After she got better, the sympathy faded. “I lied and made something up because I needed support and attention, and that’s the way I went after it,” Finch clarified.

So how did the ruse come to an end?

The Ankler reports that in 2019, Finch admitted herself into a facility that rehabilitates and treats women with trauma. She said this was due to the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her older brother.

At this facility, Finch met another domestic abuse survivor, Jennifer Beyer. The two women fell in love and tied the knot. But Finch’s new spouse realized she was in for a total trip when she found out that her wife had lied about multiple things, including the cancer diagnosis.

One of these lies was that Finch was a regular at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Of course, it came after the synagogue was attacked in 2018, and 11 people died.

Though Beyer pushed her to come clean, Finch did not make much of an active effort, which led to Beyer taking things into her own hands and informing Disney and Shonda Rhimes of what had happened.

An article dropped on March 17 exposed Finch, essentially ending her career.

The Grey’s Anatomy writer blames the abuse she suffered as a child for her compulsive lies, one of which is about her brother.

In 2019, Finch did not show up to work at Grey’s Anatomy writers’ room. She wrote a note to her coworkers, explaining that Eric — the same older brother she alleges physically abused her — had died by suicide.

“I’ve been gone because my brother died by suicide. He was on life support for a short while but ultimately did not survive,” she wrote. ” I say this not because I need or want anything from anyone. I’m not a delicate flower or whatever. I just want people to know I’m still here, still part of the team.”

The Ankler reports that Eric is alive and well and currently works as a doctor in Florida.

“I know it’s absolutely wrong what I did. I lied, and there’s no excuse for it. But there’s context for it,” she said, reasoning with interviewer Kiefer. “The best way I can explain it is when you experience a level of trauma, a lot of people adopt a maladaptive coping mechanism. Some people drink to hide or forget things. Drug addicts try to alter their reality. Some people cut. I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard.”

Context is, unfortunately, not bringing any sympathy her way. The writer has switched her Twitter account to private mode, and it may be because a flood of outrage opened up on her.

“Elisabeth Finch does not deserve a platform and deserves to rot in hell,” said fellow TV writer Jessica Queller on Twitter.

“As someone who carries the BRCA1 mutation and has lost countless friends/family to cancer, there’s no one more despicable to me than [Elisabeth Finch]. There is no redemption.”

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