Former ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Crew Member ‘Lied’ About Cancer, Family Suicide: REPORT
Elisabeth Finch, a former writer for the hit show Grey's Anatomy, has admitted to lying about having cancer.
Finch admitted to her lies during a tell-all interview with The Ankler.
"What I did was wrong. Not okay. F---ed up. All the words," she told the site, revealing she "never had any form of cancer" after she previously alleged she had a type of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma.
As part of her fabricated story, Finch previously claimed she lost a kidney and part of her leg, as well as had to have an abortion, due to chemotherapy treatments.
According to The Ankler, Finch "taped a dummy catheter to her arm and shaved her hair to feign that she was undergoing chemotherapy" during her time working on Grey's Anatomy between 2014 and 2022.
Finch also admitted that she lied in 2019 when she claimed her brother had died via suicide. Finch's brother, Eric, is alive and currently working as a doctor in Florida, according to The Ankler.
Finch told The Ankler that her string of lies began after 2007, when she underwent a knee replacement. She explained that she enjoyed the sympathy and support she received from others during that time and began to rely on it.
"It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me. I know it's absolutely wrong what I did. I lied and there's no excuse 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," Finch shared.
"Some people drink to hide or forget things. Drug addicts try to alter their reality. Some people cut. I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard," she continued.
After reports surfaced back in March that she had lied about her past medical issues, Finch resigned from her work on Grey's Anatomy. She checked into a facility in Arizona before ABC could launch an investigation into her claims.
"There were people who, when [the] article came out, were immediately very, very nasty on text. Family and friends who called me 'a monster' and 'a fraud' and said that's all I'll ever be known for and soon, more truth would come out," Finch said.
Prior to her time working on Grey's Anatomy, Finch worked on other hit shows including True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, according to her IMDb.