former Grey’s anatomy Writer Elisabeth Finch has admitted in a new interview that she lied about having cancer after she was accused of spinning false stories about her life and using them as storylines for the ABC hospital drama. Finch, who was placed on leave from the show in March and later resigned, said The ankle, “What I did was wrong. Not okay. Fucked.”
Finch confessed to the outlet that she’s never had “any form of cancer,” having previously said she’s battled the rare bone cancer chondrosarcoma and claimed to have been undergoing chemotherapy at the time of writing Grays. Finch had also claimed that she lost a kidney and had her tibia partially removed because of her cancer, and said she had an abortion because of the chemotherapy.
In addition to lying about her health issues, Finch also told colleagues that her brother committed suicide, and she claimed to have known a victim of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. According to The Ankler, Finch didn’t know of any victims, and her brother lives and works in Florida as a doctor.
“I lied when I was 34 and it was the biggest mistake of my life,” Finch said. “It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and buried itself deeper and deeper in me.”
While Finch told the ankler, “There’s no excuse for that,” she added, “there’s a context for it.”
“The best way I can explain it is when many people engage in a maladaptive coping mechanism when they’re experiencing trauma,” she said. “Some people drink to hide things or to forget things. Drug addicts try to change their reality. Some people cut. I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard.”
Finch said her lying first began in 2007 when she was injured while hiking and had to undergo multiple surgeries, including a prosthetic knee. After receiving “amazing” and “wonderful” support from her colleagues before the surgeries, Finch said she missed the attention post-recovery when everyone around her went “dead silent”.
“I had no support and went back to my old maladaptive coping mechanism — I lied and made things up because I needed support and attention, so that’s what I did afterward. That’s where that lie started — in that silence,” she told The Ankler.
Fink has stopped Grays months ago after her estranged wife, Jennifer Beyer, realized she had made up significant parts of her past, including stories drawn from Beyers’ own life. Finch was initially placed on administrative leave when Disney, ABC’s parent company, opened an investigation. She then resigned and attended a treatment center in Arizona.
“You think this poor woman went through something so terrible and you want to support her,” said one of Finch’s colleagues The Hollywood Reporter back then.