For years, Elisabeth Finch was a successful TV writer for Grey’s Anatomy, as well as shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. But now people know her best for being a conwoman who faked illness not only to colleagues, but also her wife and parents.
Last month, just days before the US release of the docuseries Anatomy Of Lies, she issued a full apology for her actions on social media.
She wrote, “I’ve given no one any reason to believe a word I say. I lied about so much… ‘I’m sorry’ feels like the smallest words compared to what I’ve done, yet they are the truest.”
In 2014, Elisabeth wrote about suffering from chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in Elle magazine. She told how she defied her doctor’s advice to take leave from her writing job at The Vampire Diaries to concentrate on treatment.
“I was down 17 pounds [7.7kg], bald, vomiting relentlessly, but I was still living alone,” she wrote. “Still stubborn as hell.”
The piece caught Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes’ attention. They met and Shonda hired Elisabeth in 2015 to write for the show. During her eight years on the medical drama, Elisabeth continued to claim she had cancer, frequently taking time off for chemo and other treatment.
She carefully played the role of a cancer patient, wearing a scarf over her bald head and a bandage over her chemo port.
Elisabeth would often reference her illness in the Grey’s Anatomy writers’ room. She even wrote it into many of the episodes she worked on.
Colleagues would hear her being unwell in the work bathrooms. They even noticed that her skin tone was a yellow-greenish colour, which she attempted to hide with makeup.
Elisabeth claimed to have needed a transplant and that Kiwi True Blood actress Anna Paquin provided her with a kidney.
She also told how she ended a pregnancy due to the cancer treatment she was having and that she was sexually harassed by a former TV director.
The conwoman told the same cancer lies to her family. A cousin’s daughter later recounted how Elisabeth had told her there was a good possibility of her dying.
“We lay on the bed and cried together,” she recalls.
But while people would regularly offer to stay with her during treatment, Elisabeth always declined. She explained that she didn’t want anyone she loved to be connected to her illness and treatment.
In 2018, Elisabeth claimed that a friend had been killed in a Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. She said she had helped clean up her friend’s remains afterwards.
The next year, Elisabeth took time off work. She explained she was battling PTSD due to the event and checked herself into a mental health clinic in Arizona. There, she met fellow patient Jennifer Bayer, a nurse and mother of five who was receiving treatment for severe PTSD with dissociative episodes. The women grew close and married in 2020.
Elisabeth told her wife and Grey’s Anatomy colleagues that her abusive brother Eric had died by suicide. Then Jennifer began to have suspicions about her wife’s medical claims and realised that certain stories weren’t adding up. After confronting Elisabeth, the writer began to confess to her many lies.
After discovering that Eric was alive and working as a doctor in Florida, Jennifer reached out to her wife’s colleagues to tell them about the web of lies.
In 2022, her employers placed Elisabeth on administrative leave and soon after, she took a voluntary leave of absence.
Six months later, Elisabeth – who has split from Jennifer –publicly admitted to her lies in an interview.
Stream Grey’s Anatomy today on Disney+.
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