Top Grey’s Anatomy Writer Put on Leave After Reportedly Lying About Medical History That Inspired Several Episodes

Elisabeth Finch, one of Grey’s Anatomy’s most prominent writers and a consulting producer on the series, has been placed on medical leave after she was accused of lying about her medical history — which inspired several episodes.

Finch, best known for penning the heart-wrenching 2015 episode Silent All These Years — which also featured the writer as a nurse — is at the center of a Disney human resources investigation following allegations that she fabricated her medical history.

Disney’s human resources team, along with the company’s legal departments, are attempting to determine if several elements of Finch’s medical history, including her cancer diagnosis and the abortion she had while undergoing chemotherapy, are accurate.

Finch had detailed her medical and personal struggles in several essays penned for numerous outlets including Elle, Shondaland.com, and The Hollywood Reporter.

“Only Elizabeth can speak to her personal story,” Shondaland, a production company owned by Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter (THR).

According to the outlet, Finch’s past was put into question after the writer abruptly left the writers room, citing a family emergency.

Colleagues reportedly later phoned Finch’s wife Jennifer Beyer and discovered “similarities to the story Finch told her colleagues and Beyer’s history matched.” Finch and Breyer are allegedly now going through an “acrimonious divorce.”

“Ms. Finch will not disclose her private health matters. Likewise, she will not speak about her pending divorce from her estranged wife, Jennifer Beyer, or comment on any statements that Ms. Beyer may have made to third parties about Ms. Finch,” Finch’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, of Lavely & Singer, said in a statement to THR.

Watch a clip from Grey’s Anatomy Season 15, Episode 9 (featuring Finch as the nurse leading the gurney) above, via YouTube.