In a twist that feels almost ripped from Grey’s Anatomy itself, a writer who formerly worked on the Shonda Rhimes series has apologized for faking the cancer diagnosis that reportedly clinched her the job.
Staring down yet another exposé on her long con, Elisabeth Finch addressed the scam—in which she claimed to have advanced chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer for which she underwent sham chemotherapy—in an Instagram post.
“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 an addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues.”
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This latest mea culpa arrives on the heels of a new Peacock docuseries chronicling a scandal first exposed in 2022, by reports in Vanity Fair and the Ankler. Anatomy of Lies, which dropped Oct. 15, is a collaboration between the Vanity Fair reporter, Evgenia Peretz, and her filmmaker husband, David Schisgall; it features sit-down interviews with several of Finch's former Grey's colleagues, and with the children of Finch's ex-wife, Jennifer Beyer. The conclusion, Schisgall told Variety, is that Finch is “a master manipulator.”
A short list of Finch's apparent lies: The existence of the cancer itself, which Finch detailed in a since-disappeared essay for Elle; the idea that she was the only participant in a clinical trial for treatments to have survived; the chemotherapy she purportedly had, evidently responsible for her bald head and the abortion she claimed to have needed after getting pregnant.
Honestly, it all sounds ripe for dramatization on primetime’s longest-running medical drama. And as Vanity Fair notes, not only was the cancer grift convincing enough to earn Finch the Grey's gig, but it also provided inspiration for a season 15 subplot.
There were the non-cancer lies, too. Per Vanity Fair, Finch tweeted about having helped clean up “what was left of [her] friend” at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where she was allegedly on the scene after the mass shooting in 2018. She also said she’d had to take her abusive brother off life support after his unsuccessful suicide attempt.
Again, this is just a brief sample of the wild tales Finch wove, many of the details reportedly lifted from Beyer’s life. After it all came out, Finch apologized, saying her behavior had been “f---ed up.”
In her Instagram post, Finch said she “married a woman with whom she fell deeply, truly in love,” and that the “biggest mistake” of her life, “(alongside lying about cancer in the first place) was saying ‘yes’ to Jennifer’s proposal before I was honest with her.” No specific acknowledgment about the apparent theft of a life story.
For whatever it is worth, Finch says she has been “receiving mental health treatment for nearly three years” and attempting to make amends with whoever is willing to listen.
“There is no excuse, no justification—nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay,” she wrote in her post. “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.”
Meanwhile, Peretz told Variety that she has “already heard” that Finch has been “reaching out to people still inquiring about jobs. We have heard she has something in the works about her life.” Watch this space, I guess.
