Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that the tale of Elisabeth Finch is heartbreakingly bewildering owing to the fact she lied about every aspect of who she is for years. She actually made up some extreme personal as well as medical scenarios before making them public just to get ahead in her career, without once caring about who she trampled in her way. In fact, as per Peacock’s ‘Anatomy of Lies,’ she consistently absorbed the trauma of others and turned it into her own on a much bigger scale until her truth finally came to light around early 2022.
Elisabeth Finch Was Once a Renowned Writer
It was back when Elisabeth was just a little girl growing up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, that she first developed a passion for good stories, only for it to continue evolving as the years passed. The truth is she had started writing entire scripts for different plays by the time she was in high school, unaware her strong, independent views would only enable her to succeed in the real world. The fact she seemingly had the support of her family — mother Joan, father Robert, and elder brother Eric — was also significant to her, leading her to enroll at the University of Southern California.
As per the show, Elisabeth’s originals already covered some dark topics like abuse despite her never indicating any personal experiences regarding the same at the time, making her come across as highly empathetic and talented. However, she did have first-hand knowledge about the intensity of cancer since her mother had been diagnosed while the children were quite young, and she fortunately managed to beat it. Little did anybody know these incidents combined would spark a fire inside the then-teen to do wonders, driving her to jump straight into the entertainment industry following her stint in college.
Elisabeth actually started as an assistant to a television writer, which soon opened so many doors for her that she managed to learn from the best before spreading her own wings as a writer. She made her debut as a junior television writer for ‘True Blood’ in 2010, shortly following which she worked at the IAMA Theatre Company before securing a job at ‘The Vampire Diaries‘ in 2012. This fresh-faced writer did so brilliantly here that she ended up earning the nickname “Vampire Girl,” which only pushed her to evolve and ultimately get a spot in the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ writer’s room as one of the top writers as well as co-producers.
Elisabeth Finch’s Web of Lies Spanned Years
According to records, Elisabeth was a 34-year-old writer just starting to make a name for herself when she first claimed she had sadly inherited the cancer gene from her mother and been diagnosed. However, instead of it being breast, ovarian, or skin, she asserted she had an extremely rare type of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma (the same kind she later penned in for the character of Catherine Fox on ‘Grey’s Anatomy‘). Then, as time passed, the now Los Angeles resident also came forward to reveal she had to have an abortion while undergoing chemo, lost a kidney, and underwent a knee replacement due to misdiagnosis.
As if that’s not enough, Elisabeth later alleged she had been assaulted not only by her brother Eric (physically) while they were children but also by an unidentified director (sexually) on the set of ‘The Vampire Diaries.’ Then came her insistence that she was there following the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to clean up a friend’s remains before asserting in 2021 that her brother died by suicide. At every step of the way, she was understandably allowed extended leaves and deadline extensions, just for her to often come in before they were over to showcase she was wholly dedicated to her work.
From retching in the writer’s room washrooms to giving interviews as a Hollywood professional with cancer to being on a variety of panels speaking on abuse, Elisabeth did it all in the ensuing years. However, everything turned upside down for her in early 2022 as her wife, Jennifer “Jenn” Beyer, a registered nurse, sent an email to her employers asserting she was a liar with the proof she had managed to find. The fact this writer subsequently refused to provide documentation to substantiate her claims or even undergo an independent medical evaluation did not work out well for her, as she was placed on leave on March 17.
Elisabeth Finch Still Hopes to Work in the Entertainment Industry
It actually took being ordered to go on administrative leave by her employers — Shondaland as well as its then-affiliate Disney — while they conducted an investigation for Elisabeth to finally reveal her truth. As an ambitious writer who believed her story was the best source of inspiration, she confessed to having lied about everything medical, the trauma related to the synagogue shootings, and her brother’s suicide. Yet, she did maintain her physical and sexual assault allegations before also claiming she got the idea for the ‘Silent All These Years’ episode on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ from the Kavanaugh trials and not from a fellow writer’s real life.
As for Elisabeth’s current standing, from what we can tell, the 46-year-old Los Angeles, California resident still hopes to make a comeback one day to continue telling some possibly incredible stories. There is reportedly still a fire burning inside of her, which she hopes to make full use of even though the reality is that she was essentially blocklisted once her truth came out. That’s because while she was a good writer as well as a brilliant researcher, considering the extent of all her lies and the way she brought them to life, not just for herself but often on screen, the past makes it hard for others to trust her in any manner.
“What I did was wrong,” Elisabeth conceded to The Ankler back in December 2022. “Not OK. F****d up. All the words… I was cut off pretty quickly from everything [following my administrative leave and ensuing resignation.] “I slowly started to see people blocking me on Instagram and other social media. It was so universal that I don’t know if an email went out or everyone just got together and decided ‘no thank you.'” Nevertheless, while she admits that her decision to lie snowballed into something she never could have imagined, she has reiterated it stemmed from the physical abuse she endured as a child and the sexual abuse she endured on sets. So, she still wants to return to the industry and is seemingly trying her best to make it work.
Read More: Jenn Beyer: Where is Elisabeth Finch’s Estranged Wife Now?
