We were sitting together on the, on the plane, and I just sort of started pouring my heart out to him, and he was a very good friend. Bo has begun asking questions about this medical miracle worker, so had some fellow researchers. They become engaged and plan a lavish dream wedding, to be attended by celebrities and officiated by none other than Pope Francis himself. How to, what do we do now? By the time he performed the artificial trachea transplant on Cetir, he had already performed the same procedure on four other patients. She had spent her entire little life in the hospital, never left the hospital because she had a tube down her throat just to live. Benita was pursuing a big story when the ill-fated lovers met in 2013. [00:39:38] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, I mean we were going through fittings, we were going through the process of um getting things together. Macchiarini took Alexander to several romantic getaways in Europe. So first it was about the wedding gown itself. Benita is still wearing the second ring throughout the documentary! And as they ride the motorcycle away from the river, the magic carpet ride takes off. Among the high-powered clients who Macchiarini claimed were on this network were the Clintons, the Obamas and even Pope Francis. He told her opera singer Andrea Bocelli would be singing in the church during their wedding and that John Legend would be playing the piano at their ceremony. I want, I just want to get the job done. The couple divorced in 2009. This very personal film, which Benita narrates herself, documents how her fairytale romance with a world-renowned surgeon turns into a nightmare. "I was doing a story about regenerative medicine and his name kept coming up," Benita, a New York resident, said on the podcast Dr Death: Miracle Man. Um, you know, they come in and I'd say, "Welcome to your closet." In the meantime, please feel free I'm, you know, I like, I like information. He was giving people who had no other hope. I, I had just, in that moment I didn't have the information yet, but I just knew he was lying about everything. But her death was awful. From what we can tell, Benita still resides in New York alongside her daughter, where shes primarily a freelance executive producer for Lion Television, all the while serving as a public figure. And you know, dozens of roses and champagne and always the best champagne. You know, "You've, you've renewed my faith in love.". [00:05:44] Benita: Yeah, I mean the, we wanted to do a story about this field called regenerative medicine which added base core, the most simplistic way to define this is, it's sort of sci-fi, futuristic medicine where the, the goal is to be able to create body parts or organs in the lab, man-made. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. He was often described as a George Clooney look-alike, you know, he's, he's very elegant. I see a woman and two kids," she said, adding that she knew about Paolo's wife in Italy. [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. When Benita discovers that her fiance is not who he claims to be, she goes on an emotional journey to unravel a trail of destruction that leaves patients dead and their shattered families in shock. "I was angry as hell. to search for ways to make a difference in your community at With Whoopi Goldberg filling the narrators seat, the series kicks off with the story of Paolo Macchiarini, a former world-renowned thoracic surgeon now known for research fraud and his strange involvement with an unsuspecting producer by the name of Benita Alexander. And he said, he finally said, "Well, I'm going to go and talk to my contacts at the Vatican." And, and so we pivoted the story a bit to make it a little bit more about some of Paolo's other patients and more about, you know the field of regenerative medicine. But at this point, they're just questions. And Paolo had said to me, "You, you need to find a way to say good-bye to him," and he said, "I'll help you." "I have some really high-powered clients," she said he told her. Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. We had 300+ people coming from all over the world. And he was putting artificial tracheas, the windpipe, into patients. He Lied About Everything is the true tale of the love affair between award-winning investigative producer Benita Alexander, and world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. Alexander felt compelled to cancel the wedding, yet while she tried to figure out the extent to which Macchiarini had lied, she said she let him think they would still marry one day. [00:34:35] Bob: The first step is working with Benita on ideas for the wedding dress. [00:09:18] Benita: Yeah, so we, we started focusing our story around Hannah and her family, and Hannah was actually, she was going to be the youngest person in the world to ever get one of his experimental transplants; the first toddler, and also the first patient to be operated on in the United States. Documentary producer Benita Alexander thought it was love when her job introduced her to internationally renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. Six years later, in 2009, they filed for divorce. [00:02:54] Bob: Benita focused on emotional stories, many involving children in tragic circumstances. Paolo had actually told her that Pope Francis would be officiating their wedding and that celebrities such as Elton John, the Clintons, the Obamas, and the Beckhams, among many others, would be in attendance, and shed somehow believed him. Maybe help me, help with the invitations 'cause I don't want to deal with that. I had butterflies or something like some, some kind of electric spark went through my body, and I, my immediate thought was, what in the heck is that? NBC News is pulling "A Leap of Faith" Meredith Vieira's documentary on controversial . I was just kind of like, um, 'cause Benita's so awesome and like, you know she was totally in love with him. And she meets Christopher at his shop. Benita was also the Co-Executive Producer and narrator for the 2016 TLC documentary, "Breaking the Silence," about sexual abuse. You know, "What did he do this time? Her daughter has thus been the only constant in her life. When a magical romance with a world-renowned surgeon develops into a nightmare, his fianc uncovers a path of destruction that leaves dead patients and shattered families in its wake. "As furious as it makes me what he did [to me and] my daughter, the thought that this is a man who has people's lives in his hands. She did what she had to but never let it take over her life, which in turn helped her graduate magna cum laude from Wayne State University in 1987. [00:41:47] Bob: But not as scary as what happens next. I don't want you to do anything except find your dresses and just, all you have to do is show up and look beautiful. Gerdin also said Macchiarini had failed to obtain ethical permits to perform the transplants, which he said amounted to experimentation on human subjects. One name kept coming up over and over again, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini. "The outcry was such that the Karolinska Institute had to do something," said Ritchie. So he goes to the Vatican, ostensibly, to ask for help finding someone who will marry us, and he calls me after that meeting and says to me, tells me I need to sit down, um, he has good news, but I need to sit down. I want to focus on work. NEW YORK Dr Paolo Macchiarini, He Lied About Everything with Benita Alexander Armchair MBA 18K subscribers Join Subscribe 1.5K Share Save 128K views 2 years ago I chat with Benita Alexander. Benita Alexander grew up like a regular American kid. Benita has to keep a secret. And it's presented to me by Paolo, it's not even about our wedding or about our love story. Moreover, the Italian investigator found records showing that despite planning a wedding with Alexander for so long, Macchiarini was still legally married. While still trying to care for Cetir, Corbascio said his team found that Macchiarini had exaggerated the effectiveness of his surgeries and falsified data to make the surgeries seem more successful than they were. It was an excellent place. What started as dream relationship developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit. And when I looked at the email, there was an article, and it was an article about the fact that the Pope was not even going to be in Rome on July 11th, 2015, he was going to be in South America. I literally felt like I was floating on clouds. Nobody, except my closest friends and family, knew about the Pope because we weren't allowed to talk about it, but they knew that was a big VIP wedding. People could be dying because of this man, and therefore, I couldn't stay silent, I couldn't crawl under the covers. Megan Hilty on the Tony's, like she got best dress, or Debra Messing, or you know, Carli Lloyd, like the whole soccer team coming in, I'm dressing Carli Lloyd for all these, for the ESPYs, and, you know, all these amazing people that I've dressed over the years, even the Oscars and I'm, I mean it's going wow, I made it to where I love what I do. It was, it was really, really difficult. That's pretty unusual too. Wake up to the real world! He was put on trial after his patients reportedly suffered bodily harm during his experimental surgeries but he always denied any criminal wrongdoing. [00:12:11] Benita: Not like that, you know, this was, this was one of those almost cliche movie moments where, you know, I don't even believe in love at first sight, but there was some sort of thing, something happened. Are you new to podcasts? She works in Rockefeller Center and flies all around the world, and on one of these trip, she meets the man of her dreams. You know, we should do this to help Pope Francis, we should do this to help the Catholic church, and so it was almost like an obligation. Dashing, successful and charming, Macchiarini, she thought, was the perfect man for her. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age. He actually brought him home on Christmas Day, and he and I are still in touch. She finds that story in South Korea. These were made in a lab out of the very same plastic that a soda bottle is made out of, and then he would bathe this in the patient's own stem cells in something called a bioreactor, and then transplant that, this plastic windpipe into people. I'll take care of it." Paolo Macchiarini (born 22 August 1958): 2 is a Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon and former regenerative medicine researcher who became known for research fraud and manipulative behavior. In 2019, the film was nominated in the documentary category for the WIN Awards, Women's Image Network. The way he used stem cells with his plastic tracheas would eventually develop into something quite extraordinary where you could use stem cells to target organs or other areas of the body where the, where there was a medical problem. All of this was happening around the same time that Alexander was preparing to share her own story publicly for the first time in a Vanity Fair article. And we rode for probably 30, 45 minutes until I sort of found a spot that I thought was appropriate, and I got off the bike and I went to the water. Alexander had already sent invitations to her closed ones. You can also manage your communication preferences by updating your account at anytime. [00:25:28] Bo Lindquist: He was definitely prone to getting angry and, and could be quite violently. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. So it was uh, quite, quite in--, incredible or remarkable to, for those words to come out of her mouth. On the back of his motorcycle, he drove her along the Illinois River until they found a place where she could memorialize her ex-husband. "From that moment on, it felt like my head was spinning," Alexander said, "and it didn't stop spinning.". After she called Macchiarini, furious about what she'd read, she began to wonder what else he might have lied about. Give it to me. The couple had the wedding planned for July 2015. And I just thought, okay, you've got some stupid little schoolgirl crush on this doctor, which is absurd. I mean, I got this sort of chill through my body, like there was some sort of electric spark, and I remember, in my head, thinking, 'What the hell was that?'". "He [the Pope] wanted to use us as the poster couple for the Catholic church, to prove people who are divorced can get married in the Catholic church.". (Pasadena, Calif.) - This Valentine's Day, Investigation Discovery (ID) presents a love story gone wrong with HE LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING, the astonishing true tale of the love affair between award-winning investigative news producer Benita Alexander, and the brilliant, world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini.What started as a picture-perfect dream relationship between two people at the . Then, two years later, her father, whod married a neighbor, asked her to pack up her bags and leave for good. I don't want you to do anything except find your dresses and just, all you have to do is show up and look beautiful. She's a star producer for NBC News in New York, working alongside Meredith Viera creating primetime TV specials. "We had to clear her throat basically every four to six hours, sort of 24 hours, seven days a week," said Oscar Simonson, a cardiothoracic surgeon who worked at the Karolinska Institute and its affiliated hospital at the time. She started her career at a local news station before moving on to work at NBC in New York. 5 Journalist Benita Alexander (right) has revealed chilling clues that disclosed her lover and famed surgeon Paolo Macchiarini as a "romance scammer" Credit: Instagram / loveconned 5 Anyone that knows anything about private schools in New York knows how hard that is. But there was something, yeah, something happened between us the, the moment we met. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Why don't you, can you just for once sit back and let somebody else take over, just let him, let him take it over." And whatever that is, let's, let's push that away, you know. [00:21:22] Benita: Tragically, Hannah passed away, which was, um, just devastating. She couldn't do anything that a normal child could do. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. [00:25:22] Bob: And while Paolo loves to talk about his work, he isn't always charming. While Macchiarini continued to deny any wrongdoing, he lost his job at the Institute and Swedish prosecutors began looking into whether his behavior was criminal. Benita has since spoken up about her experiences in the media, given public speeches, and written detailed articles in renowned publications to bring awareness to the concept of love con. Benita Alexander, an award-winning documentary TV producer and Paolo Macchiarini fall in love after meeting in 2013 while she is working on a story about the. Before their wedding, the couple visited Italy, where Alexander asked Macchiarini to show her where their wedding celebrations would take place. I mean it was crazy. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. And so does anyone who has anything to do with the wedding. Instead, he says their underlying health conditions were fatal and may have been a factor in their deaths. Um, (laugh) I was uh, in my 40s. Prior to this, Benita spent 17 years in network television, producing long-form documentaries, breaking news, investigations, specials and hard news features for NBC. I don't know if I was nervous. In fact, the scientist was embroiled in lawsuits and accusations at work. [00:31:35] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, it is a special process. So now, if you wish to learn more about the latters narrative as well as her current inspirational standing, weve got the details for you. "I put it all in a message. Macchiarini remains married to Emanuela Pecchia, his wife of nearly 30 years. [00:14:35] Benita: The thing about Paolo is he's a very good listener, and we, after a shoot sometimes, would go out to dinner, or we would be in a group of people talking. [00:34:17] Bob: Well, at some point you transition from wow to okay, I've got to get to work on this, right? Nothing anybody could do for her, and then like so many of Dr. Paolo Macchiarini's patients, they did a google search and found this kind of a magician of a surgeon who said I can help your little girl. In the course of that operation, the surgeons had nicked her trachea. ABC News reported that Macchiarini has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Benita. "That wasn't true. And so we, we thought, you know, this is a perfect case to focus a story around, and so we started doing Hannah's story. View this post on Instagram Benita Alexander-Jeune started her career as a journalist for a few minor television stations. Star-Studded Wedding Becomes Brides Worst Nightmare, Part 1, Journalist exposes her celebrity fianc, part 2, Computer hacker drains couple's life savings. [00:19:01] Bob: It's just making it harder for every man in the world. I mean it was, I felt butterflies, you know. The qualified journalist then began working at a string of local television stations. You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. And so I thought, okay, maybe its not as crazy as it, as it sounds. Season 1 (206) 2018 13+ He Lied About Everything is the true tale of the love affair between award-winning investigative producer Benita Alexander, and world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. She found out exactly what hed lied about - and she said it was extensive. In June 2013, they flew to Venice for what Alexander called an incredibly romantic weekend.. Macchiarini was already being scrutinized for his work, including by doctors who had been trying to save the life of one of his patients, Yesim Cetir. [00:20:06] Benita: We had kind of quietly gotten engaged, but we weren't telling anybody um, because I mean the complicated thing about this is that there's a sort of unwritten rule in journalism that everybody understands, that, you know, there's, there is a line you just don't cross a kind of sacred line where you don't, you can empathize with a story subject, you can sympathize, but you don't become personally involved with a story subject for, for the reason, obviously, that your objectivity could be compromised, right. Read More: Where Is Paolo Macchiarini Now? And we got involved and started doing the story, and it got very intense. "He was a good listener and gave me sage and solid advice.". Um, she was being brought to Illinois, the Children's Hospital of Illinois because a Korean nurse there had found Hannah in the hospital in Seoul and had sort of lobbied to bring her to the US. And when we went to Boston to interview Dr. Macchiarini, when he came in, it was um, I was with a colleague, and he, he came into this bar where we had arranged to have a coffee with him just to say hello the night before the interview, and you know there's, he's a very charming, good-looking man. In 2015, Alexander sent emails to the Karolinska Institute expressing concerns about the acclaimed surgeon. She'd been in the intensive care unit in Turkey for three years, and her health was still deteriorating. She was even more stunned when she began to realize that so much of what Macchiarini had told her about his personal and professional life was a lie. Macchiarini told Alexander he was having difficulty finding a Catholic priest who would marry two divorcees, but he told her not to worry, he would talk to his contact in the Vatican. Benita Alexander is a producer, director, writer, and narrator, who has actually been behind several episodes of IDs Now, Dateline, and even Inside the Obama White House. It thus comes as no surprise that her professional success has given way to her confidence. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. He was incredibly generous, you know, and so romantic and just so wonderful. After Cetir's surgery, doctors say she had to undergo an additional 191 surgeries for other complications. You know we went on this incredibly romantic trip to Greece, and he was always videotaping me. I, I thought it was ridiculous. [00:23:44] Bo Lindquist: Paolo was very well-dressed and very careful with his looks. [00:31:00] Bob: One of those nondisclosure agreements is signed by Matthew Christopher. [00:36:44] Bob: I feel like there's some people you meet who are simultaneously uh impressive but uncomfortable. The procedure uses the framework of a plastic tube lined with the patient's stem cells and is intended to help them replicate into a healthy version of the . Because the, in itself, more gowns were added into the wedding. Best Known For For her appearance in ID Now (2017), Dateline NBC (1992) and Inside the Obama White House (2009). He also directed ABC News to a list of reforms the Institute was implementing in the wake of the scandal. [00:19:53] Bob: While the romance is intense, it's also very secretive. For other inquiries, Contact Us. "The surgeons in Turkey tried to repair it and there were some complications," said Rosemary Pinto, a personal injury lawyer later hired by Cetir's family. [00:36:07] Matthew Christopher: Confident, rico-suave, I am Paolo, ha-ha, and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm like am I nervous? In her personal life, she's also looking for a medical miracle, a miracle that, well it wasn't going to come. He was a flair for the dramatic and plans one romantic encounter after another. But on the afternoon that she met him, a day before she was supposed to begin filming him, something happened that gave her pause. But our guest list was insane because now that the Pope was marrying us, he kept inviting all these dignitaries, you know, so world leaders were coming to our wedding. And so I did, you know, I sat back, and even when I was tempted to ask questions, I didn't. It was beyond Benita's wildest dreams - Macchiarini reportedly told her he invited Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Elton John, and that the Pope himself would oversee the ceremony. [00:01:28] Benita: I grew up in Australia, and I had an uncle, my mother's brother, who worked for Radio Free Europe. Cetir came to Macchiarini's attention after undergoing an elective procedure to correct a condition that caused excessive sweating. And he, so his reputation sort of proceeds him, but when he walked in to where we were sitting that day, he, when he walked in, he looked right at me, and our eyes met, and I've never in my life had something like this happen to me before, but I, I felt like a silly, little schoolgirl. It started with Andrea Bocelli was going to be singing in the church, because Paolo told me that his mother and Bocellis mother were friends. "I couldn't fall apart because I am a single mother with a daughter who needs me. Its so damaging. His six papers on the transplant surgery were retracted. What is happening? It has led to extensive reform work internally at KI in order to improve and clarify a number of regulations and routines.". And I got so irritated with him, I actually hung the phone up on him. 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"And then I want him to be held accountable. And I open the door, and there's a trail of rose petals leading up to the bed, and it says "I love you" in rose petals on the bed. Um, which is just something I never thought I would do, you know. Her film "He Lied About Everything," about her own personal story with a con man, aired on Investigation Discovery in 2018 and continues to air around the world. The article's author, journalist Adam Ciralsky, had also uncovered fabrications in Macchiarini's professional life, and he documented a number of examples of Macchiarini misrepresenting his medical training and work history. They had already decided to marry in Italy, where Macchiarini wanted a Catholic wedding despite rules against remarriages. Macchiarini convinced Alexander that the Obamas, the Clintons, the Beckhams, Elton John, and John Legend were few of many personalities to attend their wedding. The first meeting between Benita Alexander, an award-winning producer for NBC News, and Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, the famous transplant surgeon, took place at the bar at Bostons Mandarin Oriental hotel. The two-part special He Lied About Everything premieres on ID on Wednesday, Feb. 14 from 8 to 10 p.m. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. [00:23:20] Bob: Bo also spent many months following Paolo around the world, getting to know him, getting Paolo to open up to him. Mathias Corbascio, another cardiothoracic surgeon who worked at the Karolinska Institute at the time, said the intensive care unit doctor responsible for her care began consulting with him on the literature written by Macchiarini on tracheal replacements. "The headline is that it started out as a beautiful love story and it ended up as a total nightmare," said Benita. 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