Disgraced writer Elisabeth Finch made headlines for lying about her medical and personal history, which started with fabrications that traced back to her time working on The Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy and more popular TV shows.
Peacock’s Anatomy of Lies, which is currently streaming, chronicles the ups and downs leading up to Finch’s scandal. She originally started her career in Hollywood writing for True Blood, No Ordinary Family and The Vampire Diaries before going on to become a producer on Grey’s Anatomy from 2014 to 2022.
Finch made headlines for writing a wide variety of articles about her experience living with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma, having an abortion while undergoing chemotherapy, losing a kidney, undergoing a knee replacement due to misdiagnosis and more surprising claims. An exposé in Vanity Fair, however, called all of that into question in 2022.
After the article came out, 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.
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Finch broke her silence later that year about what led to her fabrication. “The best way I can explain it is when you experience a level of trauma a lot of people adopt a maladaptive coping mechanism. Some people drink to hide or forget things. Drug addicts try to alter their reality. Some people cut,” she told The Ankler in December 2022 after confirming she “never had any form” of cancer. “I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard.”
Anatomy of Lies is a three-part docuseries that allowed Finch’s loved ones and former coworkers to have a platform to share their experience with her. Everyone who participated was shocked to find out how much Finch lied about her life.
“I wish I had a grid that would show who’s not talking to me because they can’t [legally]. Who’s not talking to me because they don’t know what to say. Who’s not talking to me because they’re pissed off,” Finch added to The Ankler before the release of Anatomy of Lies, which she did not participate in. “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.”
Executive producers Sarah Amos and Melanie Archer exclusively told Us Weekly about their attempts to contact Finch, adding, “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. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make that happen.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest lies Finch told — and how they were traced back to the TV shows she worked on at the time:
How ‘Friday Night Lights’ Kicked Off the Lies
In 2014, Finch published the first of several articles detailing her cancer diagnosis and the aftermath of the health battle. An Elle piece titled “How Friends, Family, And Friday Night Lights Helped Me Fight Cancer” discussed the support she received — and how it was inspired by Friday Night Lights. Finch recalled her friends, family and colleagues sending her photos of them holding up signs with the words “State” to inspire her to keep fighting.
“I had two dozen texts. Each with a photo of a friend holding up a sign reading one word, ‘State.’ Even the star Kyle Chandler joined in,” Finch recalled in the article while her childhood friend Aurora Lee Passin added in the doc, “The response was incredible. I will just call it the Friday Night Lights campaign.”
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The Beginning of Elisabeth’s Journey With ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Mark Wilding, who is a former Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal writer, credited Finch’s piece on her cancer journey for getting her a job.
“I remember reading the article and I was very moved by it,” he told the cameras. “The article was really well-written and that got noticed by [show creator] Shonda Rhimes. I think Shonda thought that because Finch had cancer and being in the middle of our health system, she was a great person to generate stories for Grey’s Anatomy.”
Meanwhile, Finch’s former coworkers Kiley Donovan and Andy Reaser claimed she had a tough time adjusting to the writers’ room.
“I remember hearing that this one writer — Elisabeth Finch — had been on the chopping block just based on writing alone,” Donovan revealed. “Then there was a call from leadership being like, ‘Maybe rethink this one.’
Wilding had a similar experience, adding, “The people who were running the show at that point were not happy with her contributions in the writers room and with the scripts she wrote. They wanted to fire her. … [Then leadership] said, ‘You can’t fire Finch. She has cancer and she has to stay on the show.’”
Reaser recalled Finch returning to treatment after joining the room. She received support from her colleagues and even the cast of the show. Finch’s cancer was written into the show for Debbie Allen‘s character, Catherine Fox. The duo developed a friendship with Allen giving Finch “a ride to work” and there was even talk of them collaborating on a TV show together.
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Revealing Past Alleged Harassment on ‘The Vampire Diaries’
Amid the Me Too movement, Finch wrote an article in 2018 where she accused an unnamed male director on The Vampire Diaries of verbally abusing her and touching her without her consent. She accused the director of calling her a “c—” and stroking and pinching her cheek.
Finch recalled allegedly dealing with inappropriate and unwanted touching from the director until she told showrunner Julie Plec about her experience.
“She tells me I was wrong. Wrong to assume that my job is to just suck it up and pretend it’s fine. Wrong not to tell her on day one. In that moment, I understand she’s not yelling at me,” Finch wrote at the time for The Hollywood Reporter. “She is not shaming me. She is clear. And unwavering. And wants to be sure I hear every damn word when she says: ‘It is not your job to take abuse or accept unacceptable behavior because you’re young and a woman. That is not your job.’ There is no judgment or blame in her voice, only strength and certainty. And it’s because of that strength and certainty I hear her, I believe her.”
According to Finch, the director did not work on The Vampire Diaries again. An acting coach for the show, Lysine Stoneburner, called Finch’s claims into question after her lies were exposed.
“Finch was there for three seasons. I worked with her a lot and when the Hollywood Reporter article came out, I couldn’t believe it,” Stoneburner said in Anatomy of Lies. “It was all very surprising.”
Stoneburner recalled reaching out to Finch amid her scandal.
“When the article came out, she apologized for everything except the abuse claims against her brother and the sexual abuse claims on The Vampire Diaries. She wasn’t even not apologizing for it, she was doubling down on it,” Stoneburner noted before mentioning the text she sent to Finch, which read, “‘I have never reached out to you before because I was really trying to take the higher road but this apology tour you embarked on is only about things someone made public. You and I both know one of the biggest lies you told and you ruined someone’s life because of it. Admit you lied to him is the thing someone genuinely sorry would do.’”
Finch replied to Stoneburner that she didn’t recognize her number and they didn’t speak further. Anatomy of Lies noted that Finch has never publicly retracted her accusations against the unnamed Vampire Diaries director.
Telling ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Stories That Weren’t Her Own
Finch notably wrote Grey’s Anatomy‘s “Silent All These Years” episode, which centered around a sexual assault victim. Donovan has since called into question where Finch’s inspiration for the episode’s main storyline came from.
“At some point we had a drink and I shared something that happened to me and I was processing. My biological father was my mother’s rapist. I had not processed that trauma at all and I was unraveling all of that,” Donovan said about a conversation that happened before the memorable episode of Grey’s Anatomy was produced. “That was around the time Finch started to write the ‘Silent All These Years’ episode. It has the character Jo treating a woman who had been assaulted and was going to administrate a rape kit to her. The second element was in the past where Jo had flashbacks to meeting her mother and learning she had been conceived in rape.”
Donovan felt that her personal experience inspired Finch’s writing for the show.
“Even hearing that, I had not even told that story myself. I am a writer and I hadn’t even figured out if I want a chance to tell this story. Now it is an episode and it started to bug me that this was going to be the high-profile episode post-Me Too,” she continued. “I tried not to make a big deal of it. I told myself that this was part of being in a writers’ room. You share parts of yourself and people internalize them. But looking back, it was super painful. It felt weird and wrong and I never confronted Finch about it. It didn’t feel like I had a leg to stand on or it was appropriate.”
The docuseries noted that Finch publicly credited the Brett Kavanaugh hearings for inspiring her episode. Meanwhile actress Camilla Luddington cited the hearings when discussing how she suggested the storyline of her character, Jo, being conceived by rape. Luddington did not respond to a request for an interview for the doc.
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A Surprising Investment in Jo on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
As Finch continued to work on the medical drama, her coworkers noticed her interest in a specific character.
“After ‘Silent All These Years,’ she became very interested in the character Jo. The character became more popular so when we would do writers’ reads, she would want to read the Jo part. I thought she does seem preoccupied with this character but maybe she has a crush on the actress,” Reaser noted. “Anytime Jo’s story would come up, Finch would take it for herself.”
Finch pitched an idea for Jo to seek inpatient treatment for PTSD. Shortly after sharing the idea, Finch herself checked into a center in Arizona under the name Jo, which appeared to be inspired by the fictional character’s onscreen arc.
During her stay, Finch met her now-estranged wife Jennifer Beyer, who was dealing with an abusive situation that affected her mental health. Beyer relied on EDMR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) while at the facility and the treatment was subsequently written into Jo’s journey on Grey’s Anatomy.
The Similarities Between Alex Karev and Elisabeth’s Life
Justin Chambers appeared on Grey’s Anatomy from its debut in 2005 until his departure after 16 seasons. In January 2020, Chambers confirmed he would no longer be playing Dr. Alex Karev as he shifted his focus on other opportunities.
“Alex Karev was a fan favorite and Finch was determined to dig into his colorful past as part of his sendoff,” Donovan noted in the doc. “It almost felt like there was an unlimited source of personal experience for Finch to unearth.”
There was a line mentioned on Dr. Alex Karev’s sendoff episode about him living on a “farm in nowhere Kansas.” Beyer’s children, whom she shared with her late ex-husband, stayed at a farm after their father’s abuse forced their mother into treatment.
Finch was also accused of lying about her brother, who she claimed abused her as a child. She told the Grey’s Anatomy writers’ room that she had to take her brother off life support after he tried to harm himself. Finch claimed since he was a medical professional, he purposefully hurt himself in a way that would end his life. She later sent an email to the writers’ room about it after Beyer’s husband died by suicide. (A similar storyline was featured on Grey’s Anatomy.)
Anatomy of Lies clarified that Finch never publicly retracted her allegations that her brother abused her. Neither Finch’s brother nor her parents responded to Anatomy of Lies‘ requests for an interview.
Claims About the Consulting Doctor on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Finch previously wrote an article about being misdiagnosed by a doctor. She claimed the situation hit close to home during her time on Grey’s Anatomy.
“It is crazy to think that one day a doctor came in and came in to consult,” Donovan recalled. “Finch started crying and left the office that day. She said later that it was the guy that misdiagnosed her. Comes out this person doesn’t exist so this poor man came to talk to the room and everyone thought he was a villain.”
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Elisabeth’s Claim That She Was Nominated for an Emmy Award
After getting engaged to Beyer, Finch moved to Kansas to be with her and her kids. She previously told Beyer’s daughter, Maya, that she was visiting them instead of attending a major event for her job.
“She said she was supposed to get one but she turned it down,” Maya recalled. “There’s a red carpet event and everyone is texting and asking where I am. And then she started crying.”
Reaser and Donovan denied the story. “Not to my knowledge. No talk of an Emmy. Did she tell people there were?” he asked the cameras while Donovan added, “Finch was never nominated for an Emmy. I remember the day the nominations came out the vibe from Finch was like she lost something.”
The Kidney Story Connected to ‘True Blood’
Finch allegedly underwent a transplant in 2017 after she lost a kidney due to chemotherapy. She claimed Anna Paquin, whom she met and befriended on the set of True Blood, was her donor. Paquin declined to comment for the Vanity Fair exposé in 2022 but a source confirmed to the outlet that the actress had nothing to do with Finch’s alleged kidney transplant.
“Finch hinted very strongly that Anna didn’t want anyone else to know about it,” Wilding recalled. “When Finch went in for the procedure, she had friends texting people at Grey’s about how things were going from her phone. We heard that the operation was very touch and go so much so that some of the writers told me that Shonda was crying the night before because she felt Finch might die.”
How an Email to the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Executives Unraveled the Lies — And ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Mention
The scandal came out when Beyer wrote an email to Rhimes, which resulted in an investigation at Disney. Beyer later received an outpouring of support from Finch’s coworkers, saying, “Several people at Grey’s wrote me kind and caring letters letting me know I was believed and cared about. It was very touching.”
Wilding, who referred to Finch’s behavior as one of an “emotional terrorist,” addressed how the team behind Grey’s Anatomy dealt with the drama.
“Shondaland handled the situation with kid gloves,” he said about Rhimes’ production company. “They wanted to make sure legally if they got rid of her that they could do so without getting sued.”
Finch did not take part in Anatomy of Lies. She previously told The Ankler she wanted to return to Hollywood — and write for The Handmaid’s Tale.