Elisabeth Finch in 2019. Credit: Todd Wawrychuk/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images
(CNN) --
Elisabeth Finch, who had worked as a writer and consulting producer on ABC's hit series
Grey's Anatomy
, has given an interview admitting she lied about her health and personal life.
Finch told The Ankler that he never had "any type of cancer."
"What I did was wrong," he said.
"It wasn't right. It was kind of f*****. All the words."
Elisabeth Finch in 2019. Credit: Todd Wawrychuk/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images
In March, The Ankler broke news that the series was investigating concerns that Finch had fabricated past stories about her life, including being diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, as well as losing a kidney and part of her body. his leg.
"He stuck a dummy catheter in his arm and shaved off his hair to pretend he was receiving chemotherapy," the outlet reported in the follow-up article published Thursday.
"I miss him so much. I miss my fellow writers," Finch told The Ankler of his old job.
"It's like a family and... one of the things that makes it so hard is that they came together around a false narrative that I made up."
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Finch resigned from his position and sought hospital treatment before an investigation into the program began, according to the report.
Finch said he began telling lies during the 2007 writers' strike, after he injured his knee while hiking.
The result was a knee replacement operation that he said people were "so understanding" about.
"It was a hellish recovery period and then everything was deathly silent because, naturally, everyone was like, 'That! You're good now.' But everything was very quiet," he explains.
"I had no support and I went back to my old coping mechanism: I lied and made something up because I needed support and attention, and that's how I did it. That's where the lying started: in that silence."
According to The Ankler, Finch also lied to his colleagues in 2019 by telling them that his brother had died by suicide, when in fact he is alive and living in Florida.
She told the publication that she did feel guilty about the false stories she told, which she says have resulted in both job loss and disownment from some members of her family.
"I know that what I did is absolutely wrong," he said.
"I lied and there is no excuse for it. But there is a context behind it. The best way I can explain it is that when you experience a level of trauma a lot of people go into a maladaptive coping mechanism. Some people drink to hide or forget things. Drug addicts they try to alter their reality. Some people cut themselves. I was lying. That was my way of coping and feeling safe and seen and heard."
CNN has reached out to representatives for "Grey's Anatomy" for comment.