Disgraced Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch reacted to Peacock’s tell-all docuseries about how she faked having cancer.
“I’ve given no one any reason to believe a word I say. I lied about so much that so many people have been devastated by in real life. ‘I’m sorry’ feels like the smallest words compared to what I’ve done, yet they are the truest,” Finch wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, October 15, which was the same day the three-part Anatomy of Lies special started streaming. “I trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues.”
Finch apologized in her statement to those affected by her lies over the years.
“I’m making amends and expressing my genuine remorse as best I can when people are ready. And I’ve accepted the fact that some may never be,” she noted. “I’ve been receiving mental health treatment for nearly three years, and I work hard every day to sustain a life where the truth matters more than anything.”
Finch joined ABC’s medical drama Grey’s Anatomy in 2014 and notably wrote the “Silent All These Years” episode, which centered around a sexual assault victim. The screenwriter claimed in various publications that she had a rare form of bone cancer, helped clean the remains of her friend’s body from the Tree of Life synagogue after the 2018 shooting, lost a kidney and part of her leg and allegedly endured abuse by a male director during her time on The Vampire Diaries.
In 2022, Vanity Fair published an exposé that called many of her claims into question. Finch was subsequently placed on administrative leave while Disney investigated the allegations that she fabricated her medical and personal history. Finch ultimately resigned from Grey’s Anatomy that same year.
Finch later admitted she never had any form of cancer. She took back all of her statements except her sexual harassment accusation against the TVD director and her claims that her brother abused her when they were younger.
Peacock’s doc, Anatomy of Lies, centered around the impact Finch’s lies had on those around her. The special wasn’t able to highlight Finch’s perspective because they couldn’t get in touch with her while making the doc.
“We did want to understand why Finch did what she did. And we tried very hard to get her to participate — or to have as much of her perspective as we were able to convey in the doc,” executive producer Sarah Amos explained. “But I do think based on the characters that we had and the way the story plays out that diving deeper into [Elisabeth’s estranged wife] Jennifer [Beyer] and the other victims was really important to us.”
Amos broke down how they had to rely on “a lot of archive” footage that existed online of Finch.
“We tried multiple avenues to reach out to Elisabeth Finch for comment — both in the reporting of the article and also in the documentary. We also talked to a couple of different sources who were close to her, who we were hopeful would either get us to her or get us other content that could help tell her side of the story,” she recalled to Us. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make that happen.”
She continued: “I do think you get a sense of her through the doc as much as possible. But obviously we always want to go as far as we can to get people to be a part of the story so we can tell the most definitive and complete version of something. But we also have to respect that at this point she is not wanting to be a part of this and certainly respect that point of view as well.”
In response to a question about where Finch could make a comeback, fellow executive producer Melanie Archer didn’t rule anything out.
“Everybody has their own theory. So there is a talking point element to this [doc] which is real and which I hope that we actually use to our advantage in the series. What your answer to that [question] might be is different to mine. Even within her colleagues, people have very different points of view,” she told Us. “The truth of it is that we don’t know and it’s a nuanced portrait. Everybody in the show has talents in different areas and actually where they’re going to emerge remains to be seen. But I don’t think anything would surprise me.”
Anatomy of Lies is currently streaming on Peacock.
