Elisabeth Finch, the infamous Grey's Anatomy writer who lied about having cancer for years, has finally come clean. Admitting to trapping herself in "the addiction of lies," Finch publicly apologized for all the lies on Instagram today, which, curiously, is the release date of Peacock's new documentary about her. Peacock's Anatomy Of Lies explores Finch's propensity for extreme lies about her health, trauma, and abuse. While everybody lies, Finch conned her way into a job on one of television's hottest medical dramas by claiming to have been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, chondrosarcoma, and exploiting her co-worker's sympathies to further her career.
"I've given no one any reason to believe a word I say," Finch writes. "I lied about so much; things 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. I trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues."
Finch says she's "making amends" by "expressing genuine remorse" but understands that some may never forgive her. Nevertheless, she says she's been receiving mental health treatment for the last three years and is working hard "every day to sustain a life where the truth matters more than anything."
Finch was the center of a 2022 Vanity Fair exposé, which revealed, among other things, how the writer became one of Grey's most successful staffers. She was the show's go-to authority on a disease she didn't have, writing 13 episodes and producing 172, including one specifically about chondrosarcoma in 2018. Anatomy Of Lies adapts the article in a three-episode docuseries in which Finch does not appear.
The writer apologizes to her ex-wife, Jennifer Dawn, for "saying 'yes' to Jennifer's proposal before I was honest with her." She calls doing so the "biggest mistake of my life (alongside lying about cancer in the first place)."
"The truth is, there is no excuse, no justification, nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay," she continued. "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. 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."
