And I was really wrestling with all of it. Macchiarini denied the accusations coming from his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute to Alexander, and she doubled down on supporting Macchiarini. So this is a lot of very heady information to take in, and he basically tells me that because hes the Popes private, personal doctor, um, and because this is such a progressive Pope, who has such a forward-thinking agenda, that the Pope a) wants to thank him for all the work hes done at the Vatican and for being his private doctor, and b) wants to use us for lack of a better term, as kind of a poster couple, so that by marrying two divorcees, you know, the Pope is going to use us to sort of open the doors of the Catholic church to allow divorcees to finally get married in a Catholic church. He is one of the world's leading cardio thoracic surgeons. And so he took me on his motorcycle along the Illinois River. She said that in November 2014, they had planned a trip to California to spend Thanksgiving with her family, "and he had been really stressed in the weeks before, and he had been talking to me for some time about how there were people that were against him, and his 'enemies.'". 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 [00:14:24] Bob: It feels natural for Benita to share the family struggle with this world famous surgeon, a man who had spent his career cheating death, or trying anyway. And Hillary Clinton got involved, different people in Congress got involved, but ultimately, after many trips back and forth to Brazil and a lot of emotion, he got his son home. He has peoples lives in his hands.. I mean I'm going to achieve this; you know what I mean? Benita Alexander-Noel was born on April 21, 1966 in Australia. [00:32:14] Matthew Christopher: She actually came to my private showroom which was really cool, and um, I had my whole staff there, and we had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and I was like, what is going on here? He responded wow,'" Benita claimed. I had to understand what happened and why. And the stem cells were supposed to magically integrate, and he was fixing people. Cetir's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer of the plastic tube used in Macchiarini's procedure. And this is something very clandestine and secretive and he cant talk about, but hes been doing this for many years, and he is a celebrity surgeon to a number of famous people and celebrities, but that he cant talk about this because hes tied to people who want a private doctor who will attend to them but, you know, they have these private doctors, because they don't want anyone to know, you know, whats going on in their private life. So over the next few days he tells me that theres something hes never told me before, and that he is actually Pope Franciss private personal doctor. But unfortunately, her personal life has been marred by a turbulent childhood in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and a series of unsuccessful relationships. He was kind of a rebel. 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. And that was the moment I just thought, oh, I'm, I'm falling for this man, you know, and I just, I just sort of melted into his arms. [00:17:35] Benita: Around this time that my ex-husband, John, passed away, we became romantically involved. Benita has become a recognized love conned expert and along with speaking engagements, she is a regular guest correspondent on "The Dr. Oz Show." [00:31:42] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, I do, you know, I've done tons of celebrity stuff, tons of Broadway stuff. Along the way he promises her a fairy tale wedding to be officiated by the Pope. 5. Benita Alexander's documentary chronicles her fairytale romance with a celebrity surgeon that turned into a scam. [00:30:34] Bob: Now your wedding is a cause. After she called Macchiarini, furious about what she'd read, she began to wonder what else he might have lied about. Free online workshop! ABC News reported that Macchiarini has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Benita. [00:42:33] Bob: When Benita comes to her senses, she switches back into investigative reporter mode, and decides to find out the real truth behind Paolo. We had, we had a very good relationship still when it came to our daughter and sharing custody and you know, both of us were very focused on our daughter. again. Well actually, dresses. The story with making a couture gown is, you know, it goes through, gosh, a team of pattern makers, drapers, um, stitchers, sewers, hand stitchers, beading and embroiderers, lace, and all that kind of stuff. Therefore, when Benita met the charming Paolo Macchiarini in the spring of 2013, thanks to NBCs A Leap of Faith, and he swept her off her feet, she crossed the professional line to start a romance with him. [00:24:07] Bob: For many months, Paolo plays his cards very close to the vest as Bo starts asking questions about the patients Paolo has worked on. What to tell her. Um, you know, they come in and I'd say, "Welcome to your closet." And he was putting artificial tracheas, the windpipe, into patients. And everybody was sort of envious in a, in a sweet way, you know, everybody would say to me, "I want what you have." Benita Alexander has been married twice. Not, not that kind of just instant, immediate spark. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. ABCs The Con is a true-crime documentary series that unveils the curtain on the people behind some of the most atrocious scams in recent times. 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 met and married a fellow reporter, John Noel, and moved with him to New York, where they welcomed their daughter in 2003. As a journalist, Alexander knew she couldn't get involved with the subject of her story. Benita was pursuing a big story when the ill-fated lovers met in 2013. I'm kind of a control, you know, right, I'm kind of a control freak. He, he was supposed to be their last hope. [00:21:08] Bob: Benita is proud of her work and happy with her husband-to-be, excited to put the finishing touches on Hannah's medical miracle story, but before the piece airs, the story takes a dark turn. 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. What started as dream relationship developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit. I mean I, I loved NBC. [00:04:39] Benita: I think one of the things that can make you a good journalist if, is if you're able to put yourself in the other person's shoes, and if you're able to sympathize with them and empathize them and really try to understand what it is they're going through. Which clearly would completely change the face of, of medicine and, you know, all these people that been told they have no hope or no chance, it, it would be, it would be a gamechanger, right. 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. "The Experiments" told the stories of some of Maccharini's patients, including young mother Julia Tuulik, who damaged her trachea in a car accident. [00:25:56] Bob: How did he take to being questioned? She later tied the knot with a ballroom instructor Edson Jeune in 2012, yet even that didnt work out. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. 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. A presence. She finds that story in South Korea. A new two-hour "20/20" reports on Benita Alexander, a television producer who fell head over heels in love with world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini while producing a report on his revolutionary new surgery technique. Alexander, an award-winning documentary TV producer, met Macchiarini in 2013 while working on a story about the surgeon's pioneering work transplanting synthetic tracheas, or windpipes. Benita was also the Co-Executive Producer and narrator for the 2016 TLC documentary, "Breaking the Silence," about sexual abuse. In fact, we both worked for NBC in New York at the same time, but we didn't know each other then. "Then he said he had connections to the Vatican. And that frees up Benita to go public about their relationship. After doing some digging, it transpired that Macchiarini was not the medical genius she thought he was. The Pope doesnt marry people. Javascript must be enabled to use this site. The Korean girl that had undergone Macchiarini's procedure in Illinois, whose story Alexander had been sent to cover, had died in the time following the surgery. It was magical. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. I found him very um, hmm, he had a presence about him. 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. It really affects you. What do they discover? Macchiarini took Alexander to several romantic getaways in Europe. She is currently the voice of the true crime series "Still A Mystery" on Investigation Discovery, and she has narrated four seasons of this ongoing, multi part show. [00:05:31] Bob: Benita worked on several stories about medical miracles, and at the time, there was one kind of medical miracle that just kept coming up. [00:38:44] Benita: I should say this wedding turns into something akin to the wedding of the century. Wake up to the real world! Uh, I think he actually appreciated being challenged to an extent. And he actually said his barber in uh the south of Russia, he, he managed to find this excellent, excellent barber in Kazan there where he performed his Russian experiments, brilliant guy. I was so conflicted about it. 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. And she, unfortunately, was born with no windpipe. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. [00:30:47] Benita: It was all very hush-hush, you know, everybody that was involved in the wedding planning, including the people that designed the wedding invitations, the people that made my wedding dresses, everybody had to just, had to sign nondisclosure agreements. He's Catholic. I, my friends sort of joke now that, you know, I was blushing all the time, and I was just giddy. She is honestly proud of how far she has come (as she should be), and its evident shell never let anything or anyone take this journey/narrative away from her. And they kind of laughed. [00:26:36] Benita: Paolo wanted a big, Catholic wedding. And so it was kind of the perfect case for us to focus our story around. How does one design a wedding dress for a wedding [00:34:25] Matthew Christopher: With the Pope? [00:31:37] Bob: Matthew is no stranger to dressing important people at important times. In her personal life, she's also looking for a medical miracle, a miracle that, well it wasn't going to come. Her daughter has thus been the only constant in her life. But despite his seemingly busy schedule, Alexander said Macchiarini offered to plan their wedding. [00:00:34] Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. But, she said he was in a "foul mood" the entire time they were there as he dealt with the continuing fallout from the allegations. "He was a good listener and gave me sage and solid advice.". I was like, 'What is happening to Benita,'" Alexander's friend, Marian Fontana, said. Benita Alexander is an award-winning television producer who is known for her won on Investigation Discoverys ID Now, Crimes Gone Viral, Dateline and Inside the Obama White House among other works. You know, "What did he do this time? And so I thought, okay, maybe its not as crazy as it, as it sounds. [00:02:54] Bob: Benita focused on emotional stories, many involving children in tragic circumstances. But Macchiarini showered her in flowers and jewelry. I mean, and we didn't know what to do. In early 1982, shortly before her 16th birthday, Benita returned home from a sleepover to discover that her mother had left the family in the middle of the night. [00:31:07] Bob: But what is a couture wedding gown designer? Benita Alexander attended Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. They become engaged and plan a lavish dream wedding, to be attended by celebrities and officiated by none other than Pope Francis himself. Since her romance with Paolo imploded in 2015, the brunette beauty has continued working on documentaries and docuseries'. It said he'd be in South America and that the "trip had been planned for quite some time," Alexander said. Although her family said the injury wasn't serious enough to necessitate a tracheal transplant, she still underwent the procedure and went on to experience tremendous pain. 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. He was speaking at a conference in Boston, and we went there to interview him, sort of ahead of Hannah coming to the US, about his work and about Hannah. In the course of that operation, the surgeons had nicked her trachea. I mean not, not physically, but he could be quite uh frightening actually when he got angry. Kind of like being in a fairy tale, you know. Firstly , on a personal observation , girl , you absolutely need a makeover. Her mother was Korean, and her dad, Canadian. A post shared by Benita Alexander (@loveconned). Benita Alexander is a producer, director, writer, and narrator, who has actually been behind several episodes of ID's '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. She works in Rockefeller Center and flies all around the world, and on one of these trip, she meets the man of her dreams. It basically was, we've been asked to do this, and by virtue of being my fianc, because I'm this famous doctor, I feel that this is something we should do. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Star-Studded Wedding Becomes Brides Worst Nightmare, Part 1, Journalist exposes her celebrity fianc, part 2, Computer hacker drains couple's life savings. You will be asked to register or log in. During her investigation into Macchiarini, Alexander hired private investigators in the U.S. and Italy. Among the high-powered clients who Macchiarini claimed were on this network were the Clintons, the Obamas and even Pope Francis. [00:18:02] Benita: Oh, there was so many. They became friends and over time she felt herself falling for him, despite her journalistic integrity impeding the romance. You know the, the invitations talked about needing a password, a secret password to get into the wedding, and you couldn't get in unless you had the invitation with you. With the celebrations set to last four days, Alexander had her dress designer make four different gowns. None of the promises Alexander said her fianc Paolo Macchiarini had made for their wedding day would come true. [00:33:49] Matthew Christopher: I mean yeah, I'm like oh, look. Hearings are expected to begin in 2022. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. 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. Um, made dinner, and did all this, and then we were discussing and showing fabrications and doing sketching and then like, you know, where were we going to begin? Subtle message to him, perhaps. Where is Benita Alexander now? This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. . 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. My friends and my family all adored him. Journalist Benita Alexander is swept off her feet by a dashing Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, while filming a documentary about his miraculous surgeries. After relocating to New York, Benita worked for NBC and was featured in NBC's documentary "A Leap of Faith" in 2013. He's also had his artificial trachea removed. I was there for about 20 minutes, and I, I tossed these flowers into the water, and I was, you know, very emotional in saying goodbye to John. Lindquist said the documentary sparked outrage in Sweden, and weeks later, new investigations into Macchiarini began. The Karolinska Institute, which had renewed Macchiarini's contract in November 2015, launched another investigation into Macchiarini and reversed its previous conclusions -- Macchiarini was indeed guilty of scientific misconduct, the Institute determined. 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. Paolo Macchiarini proposes to Benita Alexander before leaving US for work: Part 2Alexander seemed to be living a fantasy lifestyle. And these were all couples that were quote-unquote living in sin, you know, they had children out of wedlock, or whatever. 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. The Karolinska Institute commissioned an external investigation into the allegations. He was often described as a George Clooney look-alike, you know, he's, he's very elegant. He's also never spoken publicly about his relationship with Alexander. 'People Magazine Investigates' : Tracking Down the Man Who Allegedly Killed Mom of Two Joy Hibbs in 1991, Arrest Made in Beloved Mother's Cold Case Murder and Prosecutor Credits 'People Magazine Investigates', 'Hiding in Plain Sight': All About Jimmy Savile, Disgraced Royal Confidante Featured in Netflix Doc, 'People Magazine Investigates' : Inside Decades-Old Disappearances of 5 People Along the Snake River. [00:01:59] Benita: I had worked my way up from working in, from tiny little newspapers in Detroit, Michigan, which is where I went to college and where I'd, my family had moved after Australia. He, he had sort of slowly moved his way into my heart and I, I think I just really needed to be wrapped in love at the time, and I, yeah, we fell in love. 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. I didn't even, I, I, I stopped in hesitation. Alexander was assigned to work on the documentary about Paolo Macchiarini who has considered a pioneer in organ transplant. [00:36:55] Bob: Benita, the TV producer, is very used to managing all the details of a big event. Her multiple awards include: Edward R. Murrow, 2 Emmys, 7 Emmy nominations, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia, NABJ and Sigma Delta Chi. He was incredibly generous, you know, and so romantic and just so wonderful. I also believe that exposing what happened, and exposing him, might keep him from hurting others. Two-hour special that investigates the perfect engagement gone wrong between Emmy award-winning journalist, Benita Alexander, and the internationally acclaimed surgeon, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini Two-hour special that investigates the perfect engagement gone wrong between Emmy award-winning journalist, Benita Alexander, and the internationally acclaimed surgeon, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini. 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