Where Is "Grey's Anatomy "Writer Elisabeth Finch Now? Revisiting Her Shocking Cancer Hoax — and Where Her Career Stands Today

10/16/2024 10:20 AM

Peacock's docuseries 'Anatomy of Lies' takes a closer look at Elisabeth Finch's lies

Elisabeth Finch is back in the spotlight with Peacock's docuseries about her fall from grace, Anatomy of Lies, which premiered on Oct. 15.

The former Grey's Anatomywriter first made headlines in March 2022 when The Anklerpublished a bombshell report alleging that she had fabricated her personal and medical history, including a rare cancer diagnosis, which inspired a few episodes of the hit ABC show. According to the outlet, Finch was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by Disney Television Studios.

Shortly after, she announced she was taking a personal leave of absence from the medical drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In May 2022, Vanity Fairdetailed the scandal — and Finch's various lies — in a two-part exposé by contributing editor Evgenia Peretz. She, along with her husband documentary filmmaker David Schisgall, serves as director and producer of Anatomy of Lies.

Later that same year, Finch opened up to The Anklerin her only post-scandal interview to date. In the interview, she admitted to lying about several details, including her cancer diagnosis. "What I did was wrong," she said. "Not okay. F----- up. All the words."

Here's everything to know about where Elisabeth Finch is now — and what she has said since her lies were exposed.

Who is Elisabeth Finch?

Finch is a former television writer and producer known for her work on Grey's Anatomy.

Born in March 1978, Finch grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., with her parents and older brother, Eric.

After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in creative writing, she attended film school at the University of Southern California before landing her first job in Hollywood as an assistant, Vanity Fair reported. This opportunity led to an even bigger break as a junior writer on the HBO series, True Blood.

In 2012, Finch's career hit another high with a two-year writing stint on The Vampire Diaries. That same year, she began telling family members, friends and colleagues that she had been diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, and had to undergo chemotherapy immediately. Eventually, she penned a since-deleted essay for Elle about her cancer experience.

Her Elle article caught the attention of an executive at Shondaland, the production company founded by Grey's Anatomy creator, Shonda Rhimes. Rhimes was reportedly impressed by the writer and offered her a writing position on the show.

It didn't take long for Finch's real-life medical experiences to make its way into the show. In season 15, Dr. Catherine Avery, played by Debbie Allen, was diagnosed with the same type of bone cancer as Finch, who wrote the storyline.

"I wanted Catherine to be diagnosed with a spinal tumor similar to mine, only this time, the doctors would tell her the truth," she wrote in a now-deleted essay for Elle. "Because she, like the rest of the world, shouldn't have it any other way."

Finch continued to work on Grey's Anatomy until 2022. During her eight years on the show, she wrote 13 episodes and produced 172.

Why did Elisabeth Finch leave Grey's Anatomy?

In March 2022, news broke that the seasoned writer had been put on administrative leave amid an investigation into her medical history by Disney Television Studios.

A rep for Shondaland confirmed her temporary leave of duties pending investigation, telling PEOPLE, "Only Elisabeth can speak to her personal story."

Less than two weeks after The Anklerstory came out, Finch announced that she was taking a voluntary leave of absence.

"I will always remain one of Grey's Anatomy's biggest fans. I loved the show from day one and had the honor to write for it since season 11," Finch said in a statement sent to different outlets, including The Hollywood Reporter.

She continued, "Grey's Anatomy is one big-hearted, brilliant family. 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. I'm immensely grateful to Disney, ABC, and Shondaland for allowing me to do so and for supporting me through this very difficult time."

What did Elisabeth Finch lie about?

One of the biggest bombshells to come out was that Finch lied about her spinal tumor and subsequent chondrosarcoma diagnosis.

"I've never had any form of cancer," she admitted to The Ankler. "I told a lie when I was 34 years old and it was the biggest mistake of my life. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me."

But the lies didn't end there: Finch claimed that she became pregnant while undergoing chemotherapy and had to make the harrowing decision to have a life-saving abortion. She also said part of her tibia had to be removed because of her cancer. In addition, her chemotherapy also caused her to lose a kidney and require a transplant.

According to Vanity Fair, Finch told those around her that Anna Paquin, whom she had become close with during her time on True Blood, had generously donated one of her kidneys to Finch. For her part, Finch denied starting that particular rumor, telling The Anklerthat she didn't know where it came from.

Finch also lied about more than her medical history. After the October 2018 terrorist attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Finch told colleagues that a close friend was one of the 11 people killed in the shooting.

The untrue anecdote only grew bigger as she would tell people that she helped collect her friends' remains to bury them within 24 hours, as required by Jewish tradition, with permission from the FBI. Although Finch did attend a few services at the synagogue while in college, she didn't know any of the victims.

Eventually, Finch mentioned others in her stories. In 2019, she told colleagues that her older brother, Eric, had committed suicide. Even more troubling, she claimed that Eric, who she alleged was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their childhood, actually shot himself in a non-fatal way, forcing her to make the traumatic decision to pull the plug.

In reality, Eric, a doctor living in Florida, is still alive, The Anklerconfirmed. (Finch maintains that the allegations of his abuse are all true.) Eric did not return PEOPLE's request for comment.

How were Elisabeth Finch's lies discovered?

In the spring of 2019, Finch claimed to be suffering from PTSD in the aftermath of the Tree of Life tragedy.

After taking time off work, she checked herself into a mental health clinic in Arizona under the name Jo. (According to Vanity Fair, Jo was also the first name of a Grey's Anatomy character that Finch was developing a storyline for with similarities to herself.)

There, Finch met Jennifer Beyer, a registered nurse and mother-of-five from Kansas who was leaving an abusive marriage and grappling with PTSD. The two developed a close friendship and fell in love.

They married in February 2020 and began looking for a place in Los Angeles to call home. However, it didn't take long before Beyer began to suspect that some of Finch's stories were untrue, something she confirmed with a bit of social media sleuthing.

In February 2022, two years after exchanging wedding vows, Beyer reached out to Rhimes and Grey's Anatomy showrunner, Krista Vernoff, to tell them about Finch's lies. By then, the couple, who split in November 2019, was in the process of a divorce.

Still, executives at Shondaland and Disney reached out to Beyer and started looking into her claims, ultimately discovering that the star writer was, indeed, lying about a number of things, including having cancer.

Where is Elisabeth Finch now?

Following her resignation from Grey's Anatomy in March 2022, Finch returned to Arizona, where she checked herself into the same mental health facility where she and Beyer first met. Over six months later, she publicly admitted to lying about her cancer diagnosis in an in-depth interview with The Ankler.

"I know it's absolutely wrong what I did," she said. "I lied and there's no excuse for it. But there's context for it."

"The best way I can explain it is when you experience a level of trauma a lot of people adopt a maladaptive coping mechanism," she added. "Some people cut. I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard."

According to Finch, she suffered a hiking injury in 2007, which required knee replacement surgery. She recalled her loved ones being "so supportive" leading up to the different procedures she had to undergo — until it became "dead quiet."

"I had no support and went back to my old maladaptive coping mechanism — I lied and made something up because I needed support and attention and that's the way I went after it," Finch explained to the outlet. "That's where that lie started — in that silence."

Speaking about the impact of the initial exposé, Finch shared that along with her job, she lost friends and many family members disowned her. "It's been a very quiet, very sad time," she said. "I really miss it. I miss my fellow writers. It's like a family."

Although she hasn't returned to television writing, she remained optimistic about rebuilding her old career. "I could only hope that the work that I've done will allow me back into those relationships," she said.

During her December 2022 interview, Finch was living a quiet life in Topanga Canyon, Calif. While she declined to participate in Anatomy of Lies, Finch posted a statement on her Instagram on Oct. 15.

"The truth is, there is no excuse, no justification—nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay," she wrote in part. "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."

Finch added, "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. I will work and wait as long as it takes."

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