Former 'Grey's Anatomy' Writer Admits She Lied About Having Cancer

Elisabeth Finch wrote several storylines that were said to based on her own medical history, but it all turned out to be lies.

Elisabeth Finch became rather infamous at the beginning of the year when she was placed on administrative leave from the writing room of Grey's Anatomy after her medical and personal history fell under public scrutiny.

When Finch joined the long-running series, she frequently pulled from her own pool of complicated medical conditions—or so she said, both to her colleagues and in frequent personal essays written for a variety of publications, including Elle and The Hollywood Reporter—racking up writing credits on some of the series' most impactful storylines, allegedly based on her own struggles. For example, Dr. Catherine Fox's cancer. 

She had supposedly been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer just before the medical drama hired her, with aggressive chemotherapy leading her to require an abortion. She claimed to have lost a kidney and part of her leg, later requiring a knee replacement before learning she had been misdiagnosed. She would also claim that her brother died by suicide during her tenure.

But Finch, who had also written for Vampire Diaries—where she claimed to have been sexually abused by a male director—No Ordinary Family and True Blood, would eventually be caught in a lie—or, perhaps, several. 

In March of this year, The Ankler reported that there were "serious concerns within Shondaland" that Finch had made up much, if not all, of what she had been sharing, leading to her removal from the writers' room. A few weeks later, she resigned, sharing a statement to Deadline that said, “I will always remain one of Grey’s Anatomy’s biggest fans.” She shared her love for the show "from day one," and called it an "honor" to write for it since the 11th season. "The proudest moment of my career was watching survivors of rape receive the episode ‘Silent All These Years,’" she added, going on to call the show "one big-hearted, brilliant family."

She expressed the difficulty in stepping away but said she knew it was important to focus on her own health and family for a while. "I’m immensely grateful to Disney, ABC, and Shondaland for allowing me to do so and for supporting me through this very difficult time.”

Today, she's opened up for the first time about the situation, admitting that she never had cancer in the first place in a new interview with The Ankler. 

“What I did was wrong,” she said. “Not okay. F----d up. All the words.” Not only has Finch never had any form of cancer—a performance that was very convincing at the time, including a shaved head, sallow skin, visible chemo port bandages and frequent vomit breaks—but her brother is alive and well. She also lied about knowing one of the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting of 2018. 

Today, she claims the lies started after she recovered from a hiking injury that took multiple surgeries to correct, which did ultimately lead to a knee replacement. “What ended up happening is that everyone was so amazing and so wonderful leading up to all the surgeries,” she said. “They were so supportive. And then I got my knee replacement. It was one hell of a recovery period and then it was dead quiet because everyone naturally was like Yay! You’re healed.” 

She said the lie started in the silence, leaning on a "maladaptive coping mechanism" when she felt a lack of attention and support.  

“I know it’s absolutely wrong what I did,” she acknowledged. “I lied and there’s no excuse for it. But there’s context for it." Some people lean on alcohol or self-harm, for example, while she lied to "feel safe and seen and heard” after she allegedly grew up being abused by her brother and unprotected by her parents. 

Since the truth came out, Finch has spent a lot of time in therapy, addressing the trauma that she says led to the lies. Now, she hopes that work may allow her to rekindle the relationships that she has damaged. 

“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-----g ass off because this is where I want to be and I know what it's like to lose everything,'” she said.