Peacock Doc to Break Down 'Grey's Anatomy' Writer Who Lied About Cancer

Elisabeth Finch

Peacock is releasing a three-part docuseries about former Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch lying about her medical and personal history.

The streaming service announced on Tuesday, September 17, that Anatomy of Lies will feature interviews with those closest to Finch.

“The docuseries reveals how Finch, a master of manipulation, saved her best fiction for her own life story and exploited the empathy of those around her. Her final mark was trauma survivor Jennifer Beyer, who entrusted Finch with her deepest secrets,” read the official logline. “But as Beyer uncovers the web of lies that deceived Hollywood for years, she faces a daunting challenge: can she reclaim the narrative from a convincing storyteller who showed no signs of stopping?”

Finch joined ABC’s medical drama in 2014 and notably wrote the “Silent All These Years” episode, which centered around a sexual assault victim. The screenwriter claimed in various publications including g that she had a rare form of bone cancer, she helped clean the remains of her friend’s body from the Tree of Life synagogue after the 2018 shooting, she lost a kidney and part of her leg and allegedly endured abuse by a male director during her time on The Vampire Diaries.

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Vanity Fair posted a 2022 exposé that called many of her claims into question. 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 before admitting to a wide variety of lies.

‘Grey’s Anatomy’

“It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me,” she told The Ankler in December 2022. “I know it’s absolutely wrong what I did. I lied and there’s no excuse for it.”

Finch, who confirmed she “never had any form of cancer,” noted that there was context for her fabrications.

“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 continued. “I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard.”

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While Finch’s loved ones and friends took part in Anatomy of Lies, it doesn’t appear that the writer herself participated.

“I wish I had a grid that would show who’s not talking to me because they can’t [legally],” Finch added while speaking to The Ankler. “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.”

She concluded: “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.”

All episodes of Anatomy of Lies premieres Tuesday, October 15, on Peacock.