Anatomy Of Lies Explains Debbie Allen’s Grey’s Cancer Arc

Throughout 21 seasons, Grey’s Anatomy has diagnosed patients — frequently, the surgeons themselves — with myriad illnesses. But in light of a new Peacock docuseries, Catherine Fox’s (Debbie Allen) journey with chondrosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, takes on special significance.

Anatomy of Lies, which premiered on Oct. 15, tells the story of Elisabeth Finch, a Grey’s writer who lied about having cancer while working on the show. Before her deceit was revealed in 2022, Finch wrote several high-profile episodes, including the award-winning “Silent All These Years.”

Finch was also the writer behind Catherine’s cancer diagnosis in Season 15. She claimed it was based on her own life and frustration with treatment.

“I wanted Catherine to be diagnosed with a spinal tumor similar to mine,” she wrote for Elle at the time. “Only this time, the doctors would tell her the truth. Because she, like the rest of the world, shouldn’t have it any other way.”

In 2019, Finch also told E! News that she wanted to “normalize what it is to live with cancer, to live with a chronic illness,” compared to an open-and-shut arc. Allen’s character is still living with cancer as of Season 21. Fortunately, in the Oct. 17 episode, Catherine’s latest biopsy came back negative.

Finch later admitted to The Ankler that she never had chondrosarcoma, or “any form of cancer,” for that matter. Most recently, she issued an apology on Instagram, acknowledging, “Nothing erases the trauma I caused — the fear, the pain, the anger, the tears, the time. And nothing matters more to me than holding myself accountable in every way.”

The Grey’s Team Today

So, has Debbie Allen responded to Anatomy of Lies? Between her close collaboration with Finch — she served as director on “Silent All These Years” — and her character’s cancer arc, she’s a key figure discussed in the documentary.

However, aside from the former writers featured in Anatomy of Lies, Grey’s team has been fairly quiet about the scandal. When The Ankler published the first report about Finch in early 2022, a rep for Shondaland told the outlet that “only Elisabeth can speak to her personal story.”

Most recently, Evgenia Peretz — author of the Vanity Fair exposé about Finch and co-director of the docuseries — told Variety that she reached out to several of the leaders at Grey’s for Anatomy of Lies, to no avail.

“Shonda [Rhimes] made it clear when I wrote the article that she wanted no part of it, so it was basically a non-response when we reached out to her for this,” Peretz says. “We tried many people who didn’t want to touch it. We definitely tried for Camilia Luddington, Ellen Pompeo, Debbie Allen. Obviously, Krista Vernoff, and some other writers.”

For now, it seems that Allen, who also serves as an executive producer on Grey’s, has not publicly weighed in on this chapter of the show’s history.