For seven years, TV writer Elisabeth Finch contributed to the heart wrenching plotlines of the long-running medical soap Grey's Anatomy.
In that time she offered up what she said were her personal experiences to inform some of the plotlines among the 172 episodes that she produced.
Finch reportedly told her colleagues about her cancer diagnosis and treatment, an abortion and a kidney transplant she had to undergo as well as her brother's suicide, among other stories. They were all lies.
Elisabeth Finch reportedly fabricated stories about her personal life. (Getty)A two-part investigation by the Vanity Fair journalist Evgenia Peretz, which has now been adapted into the docuseries Anatomy of Lies, details that Finch had allegedly been fabricating stories about her personal life for years.
On the day the documentary dropped, Finch shared a statement apologising for her actions in a now-private Instagram post.
"The truth is, there is no excuse, no justification—nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay. Nothing erases the trauma I caused-the fear, the pain, the anger, the tears, the time," she wrote, per Variety.
"And nothing matters more to me than holding myself accountable in every way. I will continue to repair whatever damage I can and ensure I am not the worst things I've done. I recognize all of this will take time for people to believe."
Here's a look into what transpired.
What did Elisabeth Finch do?
Finch is accused of fabricating stories about her own life that she used to inform the Grey's Anatomy episodes she wrote.
She was found to fake her own cancer diagnosis for years. She shared that she had been diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in 2012 even penning an essay about it for Elle in 2014.
In the two-part investigation, Peretz revealed that Finch often took "weeks-long leaves to do what she claimed were clinical trials" and that those in her circle were concerned for her.
Before working on Grey's Anatomy, Finch had worked on The Vampire Diaries and True Blood and she spoke about the transition in an interview with Carnegie Mellon University.
"I had been telling six years worth of vampire stories and I needed a shift," she said.
A new docuseries uncovers the 'web of lies' told by the former Grey's Anatomy writer and consulting producer. (Getty Images via CNN Newsource)"I don't know if that would have happened at the exact same time if I wasn't sick. Now, being at Grey's, a show that deals with doctors, medicine and people having life and near-death experiences, there have been moments where it really has keyed into my own personal experience."
Finch also regularly published personal essays about her experiences for publications including Elle, The Hollywood Reporter and the Shondaland website.
The Grey's Anatomy episode Anybody Have A Map?, written by Finch – one of 13 that she wrote for the show – showed surgeon Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) receiving a diagnosis of the same cancer Finch claimed to have.
Her cancer claim was only one string of Finch's web of lies.
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According to Vanity Fair, she told colleagues that a friend of hers had been one of the victims of the 2018 Tree Of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, United States where 11 people were shot and killed. She claimed that she had helped clean her friend's remains off the floor.
She shared that she had to undergo an abortion and that she had needed a kidney transplant during her cancer treatment, colleagues told Vanity Fair.
She also lied that her brother had died by suicide telling her Grey's Anatomy colleagues the harrowing news in an email.
"I've gone bc my brother died by suicide. He was on life support for a short while but ultimately did not survive," she wrote in the email obtained by Vanity Fair.
As it happens, Finch's brother is alive and lives in Florida, per TODAY.com.
How were her lies exposed?
It was Finch's ex-wife, Jennifer Beyer, Vanity Fair reports, who eventually discovered and outed Finch's lies.
The pair had first met in 2019 at a wellness facility. Finch had checked in using the name "Jo" one of the Grey's Anatomy characters, to pursue PTSD treatment. While Beyer was recovering from alleged physical and emotional abuse from her ex husband. They married in 2020.
Tinged with suspicion, Beyer confronted Finch after they married. A scroll through old Facebook photos had revealed to Beyer that Finch had not tended to her friend's body after the Tree Of Life massacre but was instead out with friends. Another photo showed Finch to have a chemotherapy port that she didn't have in real life, per Vanity Fair. Finch privately confessed to the lies.
It was Finch's ex-wife, Jennifer Beyer, Vanity Fair reports, who eventually discovered and outed Finch's lies. (Jennifer Beyer/Peacock via CNN Newsource)Then, during their divorce proceedings which Finch filed for in 2021, Beyer reached out to Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes to reveal the truth.
The network considered an investigation into Finch, Vanity Fair reports, but it did not go ahead after Finch decided to take a leave of absence sharing in a statement: "As hard as it is to take some time away right now, I know it is more important that I focus on my own family and my health."
As the truth began to come out, Finch hired litigator Andrew Brettler, who has represented Prince Andrew, Chris Noth and Armie Hammer.
The Ankler publication first broke the story in March 2022 before Vanity Fair published the two-part investigation in May that same year.
In December 2022, Finch spoke to The Ankler's Peter Keifer for a piece published in December 2022 in which she admitted to the lies.
"I told a lie when I was 34 years old and it was the biggest mistake of my life," she told Keifer.
"It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me."
Where is Elisabeth Finch now?
On October 15, the day Anatomy of Lies launched, Finch shared an apology on her Instagram
"I've given no one any reason to believe a word I say," she began. "I lied about so much; things so many people have been devastated by in real life. 'I'm sorry' feels like the smallest words compared to what I've done, yet they are the truest. I trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatising my closest family, friends, and colleagues.
"I'm making amends and expressing my genuine remorse as best I can when people are ready. And I've accepted the fact that some may never be. I've been receiving mental health treatment for nearly three years, and I work hard every day to sustain a life where the trust matters more than anything."
Elizabeth Finch shared an apology statement in a post on social media. (Instagram/@erfinchie)She continued to share that the "biggest mistake" of her life was accepting Beyer's marriage proposal before she "was honest with her".
"The truth is, there is no excuse, no justification – nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay. Nothing erases the trauma I caused – the fear, the pain, the anger, the tears, the time. And nothing matters more to me than holding myself accountable in every way. I will continue to repair whatever damage I can and ensure I am not the worst things I've done. I recognise all of this will take time for people to believe."
She concluded, "I will work and wait as long as it takes."
Looking towards the future, Finch told The Ankler's Keifer in December 2022 that she would love to one day be accepted back into a writer's room.
"I could only hope that the work that I've done will allow me back into those relationships where I can say, 'Okay, I did this, I hurt a lot of people and I'm also going to work my f–king ass off' because this is where I want to be and I know what it's like to lose everything," she said.
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