For years Elisabeth Finch was a successful TV writer for Grey’s Anatomy and shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
But she is now best known 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 about her life and 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, bald, vomiting relentlessly, but I was still living alone. Still stubborn as hell,” she wrote.
PLAYING OUT ON A PRESTIGIOUS SHOW
The piece caught Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes’ attention. They met and Elisabeth was hired in 2015 to write for the prestigious show.
During her eight years on the medical drama, Elisabeth continued to claim she had cancer and frequently took 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.
She would frequently reference her illness in the Grey’s Anatomy writers’ room and wrote it into many of the episodes she worked on. Colleagues would hear her being unwell in the work bathrooms and notice 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 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 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 CRIED TOGETHER
“We lay on the bed and cried together,” she told Vanity Fair in 2022. But while people would always 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 the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue massacre and that she had helped clean up her friend’s remains afterwards.
The next year, Elisabeth took time off work, explaining she was suffering from 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.
SISTER’S ALLEGATIONS
Jennifer reached out to her wife’s colleagues to tell them about the web of lies, including that Eric was alive and working as a doctor in Florida and has not commented on his sister’s allegations.
In 2022 Elisabeth was put on administrative leave and soon after took a voluntary leave of absence. Six months later Elisabeth, who has split from Jennifer, publicly admitted to her lies in an interview.
HOW TO WATCH ANATMY OF LIES IN AUSTRALIA
The story of Elisabeth Finch is detailed in a new series called Anatomy of Lies. You’ll be able to watch the series on 7 and 7Plus from 9:30pm Friday, 29 November.
