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Elisabeth R Finch, the disgraced former Grey’s Anatomy writer who was exposed after lying about a cancer diagnosis, has responded to a docuseries about her, titled Anatomy of Lies.
The three-part series arrived on Peacock earlier this week. It explores the full extent of Finch’s web of lies, which included claiming to have had a close friend die in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in October 2018, her brother die by suicide, and her own rare bone cancer diagnosis. She later wrote some of her own fake illnesses into episodes of the hit medical drama.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Finch wrote: “I’ve given no one any reason to believe a word I say. 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.”
She went on to say that she “trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends and colleagues.”
Finch’s lies were first uncovered by her estranged wife, Jennifer Beyer. Beyer then wrote an email to producer’s at Grey’s Anatomy, warning them not to believe Finch’s stories.
“The truth is, I married a woman with whom I fell deeply, truly in love,” Finch said in the statement, adding: “Days into us first dating, she got down on one knee and proposed with pieces of lavender strung into a ring.”
“The biggest mistake of my life (alongside lying about cancer in the first place) was saying ‘yes’ to Jennifer’s proposal before I was honest with her.”
Her statement concluded: “The truth is, there is no excuse, no justification – nothing will ever make my lies to anyone okay.”
“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.
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“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,” she said. “I will work and wait as long as it takes.”
When Finch was first exposed in 2022, she said in an interview with The Ankler that she felt relieved to come clean.
“When you get wrapped up in a lie you forget who you told – what you said to this person and whether this person knows that thing – and that’s the world where you can get caught,” she said at the time. “I don’t have to worry about that now.”
