Grey’s Anatomy has aired a number of insane storylines over its more than 18 seasons on the air.
Once, as any loyal fan might remember, a prominent personality had sex with the ghost of her late fiancé.
As it turns out, though, the crazy storyline of the whole thing actually happened off-screen… as former writer and consulting producer Elisabeth Finch now admits that she lied to her friends and colleagues about some VERY personal details.
It’s like having cancer, for one thing it’s shocking.
Months after going on administrative leave from the long-running ABC medical drama — and then stepping down from the show after a March 17 report by The Ankler newsletter that claimed he may have “fabricated” a slew of medical issues out of his personal life — Finch has come clean.
And admit to doing this.
“I lied when I was 34 years old and it was the biggest mistake of my life. It got bigger and bigger and bigger and buried deeper and deeper inside me,” Finch told The Ankler on Dec. 7, adding:
“I’ve never had cancer of any kind.”
For years, Finch told co-workers and other loved ones that he had been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer… while also saying he had lost a kidney and part of his leg.
In 2014, Finch even wrote in an ELLE magazine article how he developed chondrosarcoma and ended up being hired by Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes to work on the program.
His health battle was even baked into the storyline.
HOWEVER, “he stuck a dummy catheter into his arm and shaved his head to pretend he was undergoing chemo,” the outlet reported in its stunning follow-up article published Thursday.
In addition to faking cancer — so much so that he would take breaks on set to go and pretend to vomit — Finch also told co-stars in 2019 that his brother had died by suicide, The Ankler reported.
In fact, the outlet writes now, he is still alive, and living in Florida.
“What did I do wrong,” Finch said on Thursday. “Not good. Upset. All words.”
Why did he therefore fabricate all these lies?
Finch says it all started in the 2007 Writers Strike after he injured his knee while hiking.
The injury resulted in knee replacement surgery which, he says, people have been “very supportive of”.
“It was a great recovery period and then it was so quiet because everyone was naturally like ‘Yay! you are cured.’ But it was very lonely,” he explained in his confession.
“And I got no support and went back to my old maladaptive coping mechanism – I lied and made things up because I needed support and attention and that’s how I went after it.
“That’s where the lie starts — in that silence.”
Simpler? Finch craves the attention and sympathy he’s received before.
“I know what I did was totally wrong,” he says now.
“I lied and there is no excuse for that. But there is context for that. The best way I can explain this is when you go through a level of trauma, many people adopt coping mechanisms that are maladaptive.
“Some people drink to hide or forget something. Drug addicts try to change their reality. Some people cut. I lied.
“That’s my way of coping and my way of feeling safe and being seen and heard.”
Finch even says he hopes taking responsibility at this point might one day help mend some of the broken relationships caused by his excessive lying.
He concluded:
“I can only hope that the work I’ve put in will allow me to get back into those relationships, where I can say, ‘OK, I did this, I hurt a lot of people.
“And I’m also going to work hard because this is where I want to be and I know how it feels to lose everything.’”