The ex-wife of the Grey's Anatomy who faked a cancer diagnosis - as well as a myriad of other tragedies - has revealed how she finally caught her out.
Television writer Elisabeth Finch found success writing for hit shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
However, after penning an essay for Elle about her experience living with cancer, she soon landed a writing job on Grey’s Anatomy.
In 2012, Finch had informed her family, friends, and colleagues that she was living with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma and would be undergoing chemotherapy in an effort to save her life.
Fast forward to March 2020, and millions of Grey’s Anatomy fans tuned in to learn that beloved character Dr Izzie Stevenshad been left infertile as a result of cancer treatment -- the same thing that Finch had also endured.
On top of that, the cast and crew were also aware of Finch losing her brother to suicide and the death of her friend in an anti-Semitic attack.
...the only problem was, none of this was true.
In 2022, The Ankler published an article revealing that Disney was now investigating the writer's multiple tragedies, with Vanity Fair later revealing in an exposé the Finch had been accused of making everything up.
Investigations into the truth came after TV bosses connected to Finch were sent an email from an unlikely sender: Jennifer Beyer.
Beyer was a registered nurse and struggling mom of five... and Finch's estranged wife.
"Please stop letting Finch tell ‘her stories’, because they’re other survivors’ stories," Beyer wrote prior to their divorce proceedings, per The Sun.
Finch and Beyer first met at an in-patient mental health clinic in the spring of 2019.
Despite seemingly having very little in common, the pair soon bonded over their shared tragedies.
Beyer had just emerged from a traumatic relationship with her ex-husband, and Finch had told her that she had suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child at the hands of her brother.
After falling in love, the pair married in February 2020.
What the nurse didn't know is that Finch had been relaying stories of Beyer's trauma to her co-workers on-set - saying that it was her own.
When Beyer's ex-husband died by suicide, Finch instead told her colleagues that her brother had killed himself, writing in an email: "I’ve gone [because] my brother died by suicide. He was on life support for a short while, but ultimately did not survive."
This was a lie, and her brother was alive and working as a doctor.
Another lie that Finch had told was that she had lost a friend in the October 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed.
She'd told colleagues - and Beyer - that she had been allowed onto the scene by FBI agents in order to help clean the friend’s remains off the floor.
Per The Sun, Beyer just couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right in their relationship. So, she decided to start scrolling through her wife's Facebook account.
On the day she said she had been at the Tree of Life Synagogue, she had in fact been out with friends.
Then Beyer came across photos of Finch supposedly taken while she was undergoing chemotherapy.
Despite being bald, Beyer - a nurse - noticed a key giveaway: Finch's eyelashes and eyebrows were intact.
Knowing this was impossible, she confronted her wife.
After Beyer alerted Finch's bosses, executives at Shondaland and Disney also confirmed that Finch had been lying.
Earlier this month, Peacock released Anatomy of Lies, a docuseries about Finch's web of lies.
It revealed that Finch had shaved her head and took bathroom breaks in order to "throw up", all to keep up her lie.
Finch refused to take part in the docuseries, but did say in a statement: "I trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues.
"I'm making amends and expressing my genuine remorse as best I can when people are ready. And I've accepted the fact that some may never be. I've been receiving mental health treatment for nearly three years, and I work hard every day to sustain a life where the truth matters more than anything."
After being caught, Finch spoke to The Ankler about her deception,
"It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and got buried deeper and deeper inside me,” she said of her many, many lies. "I know it’s absolutely wrong what I did."
She then offered the reasoning behind why she lied in the first place.
"But there’s context for it," she said. "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.
"I lied. That was my coping and my way to feel safe and seen and heard."
Finch told the interviewer that during the 2007 Writers Guild strike, she injured her knee during a hike in the Temescal Canyon.
The injury led to her needing knee replacement surgery, and she soon became dependent on loved ones.
When she eventually recovered, she says the lies started.
"What ended up happening is that everyone was so amazing and so wonderful leading up to all the surgeries," Finch said. "They were so supportive. And then I got my knee replacement. It was one hell of a recovery period and then it was dead quiet because everyone naturally was like Yay! You’re healed. But it was dead quiet. And I had no support and went back to my old maladaptive coping mechanism — I lied and made something up because I needed support and attention and that’s the way I went after it. That’s where that lie started — in that silence."
Anatomy of Lies is available to watch now on Peacock.
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