benita alexander documentary

And as they ride the motorcycle away from the river, the magic carpet ride takes off. And I made it to this point. 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. 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. "It was the weirdest thing," Alexander said. Macchiarini did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. to search for ways to make a difference in your community at We have somebody who has been brave enough to share something thats already humiliating and devastating. In 2015, she served as a co-executive producer on Breaking the Silence, which featured DWTS pro Cheryl Burke, and Counting On alums Jessa Seewald and Jill Duggar Dillard. And he's getting noticed in the medical field. It just never stopped, to the point that I would come home from these trips, and all my friends were hanging on the edge of their seat. I was like why, why are you videotaping me again. He's also had his artificial trachea removed. 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. Benita Alexander-Jeune started her career as a journalist for a few minor television stations. Benita has to keep a secret. I, I thought it was ridiculous. 5. That makes me crazy. Macchiarini and Benita quickly started planning an extravagant wedding, she said. With the celebrations set to last four days, Alexander had her dress designer make four different gowns. In the meantime, please feel free [00:25:58] Bo Lindquist: I think he liked the challenge. 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. She started her career at a local news station before moving on to work at NBC in New York. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try She said she later sent a lengthy text message to him, and received a single-word response: "Wow! In 2019, the film was nominated in the documentary category for the WIN Awards, Women's Image Network. Benita Alexander is an American television producer, director, writer, and reporter. You know, it was awful for her family. The latter refers to his misconduct that led to the deaths of several patients. [00:24:37] Bob: Paolo is a natural subject for a documentary film. He was often described as a George Clooney look-alike, you know, he's, he's very elegant. I'm kind of a control, you know, right, I'm kind of a control freak. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. [00:33:17] Bob: What he thinks is this is going to be an incredible challenge. The Love Con: Directed by Star Price. 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. During her investigation into Macchiarini, Alexander hired private investigators in the U.S. and Italy. 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. 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. And I, I think at least that it makes me a better writer and a better journalist. With Whoopi Goldberg. [00:35:38] Bob: I mean it sounds like that could cost an infinity if you wanted it to. Despite her work ethic, she fell in love with Macchiarini. And we first met in early 2013. I didn't know what to think. 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. In need of a lung transplant, doctors arranged to transfer her to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. If your response is to point a finger at a victim, thats really sad. [00:37:05] Benita: Everything was very, very secretive, and because the Pope was doing this, um, and Paolo told me that the Vatican would not even announce it until the day of our wedding so that the news didn't leak out. Um, I almost actually passed out. Meanwhile, the investigation into Macchiarini's professional life was ramping up -- the Karolinska Institute was investigating whether he'd fabricated aspects of his medical research. Benita met and married a fellow reporter, John Noel, and moved with him to New York, where they welcomed their daughter in 2003. I loved everything about it, and to be sort of plunging into the unknown, even though I felt very secure with Paolo, happily in love. She said she'd never fantasized about a "Prince Charming." [00:34:17] Bob: Well, at some point you transition from wow to okay, I've got to get to work on this, right? And Benita had a veil, and I brought over some dresses, and we were having some champagne, giggling and sketching, and it was so fun. In her personal life, she's also looking for a medical miracle, a miracle that, well it wasn't going to come. He responded wow,'" Benita claimed. [00:19:53] Bob: While the romance is intense, it's also very secretive. Alexander said that day marked the beginning of their relationship. www.aarp.org/volunteer. 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. One of the reasons I am so adamant about continuing to talk about this is because I think victim-shaming is terrible. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. I mean most 8-year-olds will change their minds, you know, many times, but I never changed. Three months later, the Karolinska Institute ruled that while Macchiarini did not always rise to the level of its standards, he had not committed scientific misconduct. A contact she had to the Clintons told her they'd never heard of Macchiarini. And so that meant me quitting my job at NBC and leaving New York and pulling my daughter out of her very difficult to get into private school in New York. Journalist Benita Alexander is swept off her feet by a dashing Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, while filming a documentary about his miraculous surgeries. The happy couple start planning their wedding in earnest, and well, we already know Paolo likes a challenge. Benita Alexander is an award-winning investigative television producer, showrunner, correspondent, director, writer and narrator who has worked on a wide variety of film and TV programs. ABC News reported that Macchiarini has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Benita. That's pretty unusual too. And he had been fighting with her in the courts in Brazil over this, and then she passed away, unfortunately. Benita Alexander has been married twice. And that's where we met for the first time. And it came down to how are we going to accomplish doing all these pieces for this wedding that is going to be so high profile, so exclusive, I mean I've never heard of anything so, it was, I mean in my career I've experienced some great things; this was wow. Since her romance with Paolo imploded in 2015, the brunette beauty has continued working on documentaries and docuseries'. He was kind of a rebel. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. [00:10:16] Bob: And when they meet, well Benita is stunned by what happens. He was a flair for the dramatic and plans one romantic encounter after another. 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. And I think I was even blushing. It could go out the window. [00:31:07] Bob: But what is a couture wedding gown designer? [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. "I, to this day, have no idea why he lied about our entire relationship.". And uh I decided to, to take his favorite flowers, birds of--, bird of paradise, and I ended up going to a flower shop and getting three birds of paradise; one for me, my, one for my daughter, and one for John, and Paolo um, loved motorcycles, and we had been shooting him on a motorcycle. I'm, you know, I like, I like information. I was blissfully happy. [00:12:57] Bob: And there is another reason Benita must focus on her work at the time. How to, what do we do now? After Cetir's surgery, doctors say she had to undergo an additional 191 surgeries for other complications. Instead, he says their underlying health conditions were fatal and may have been a factor in their deaths. But the biopsies showed the cells were dead and that there was actually fungi growing on the plastic, he said. 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. [00:38:37] Bob: But even without asking any questions, one thing is clear, this wedding is going to be big. It was kind of romance on steroids. We had a long time together on the flight from Korea to Illinois. Her purpose for doing so is simple; to not only move on but also build a safe community for survivors like her a place where theres self-healing through sharing and unconditional support. I still remember my first day walking in there too, especially with, with all the art, the art deco and everything. And I also had my beard uh, uh, cut there. [00:10:23] Benita: Yeah, the thing about this was, I am, and I'm, I'm very serious when I work. But on the afternoon that she met him, a day before she was supposed to begin filming him, something happened that gave her pause. The Perfect ScamSMis a project of theAARP Fraud Watch Network, which equips consumers like you with the knowledge to give you power over scams. [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. The Karolinska Institute commissioned an external investigation into the allegations. So he was very interesting and very fascinating and also because he was a pioneer, and he was pushing the envelope, you know, he was a little bit, a little bit radical, but doing, he was taking chances that nobody else would, and we actually need people like that in medicine. By the time Alexander discovered these things about Macchiarini, she said she'd spent over $50,000 on wedding preparations and quit her job. She was able to get the Vatican to verify that he had never been the pope's personal doctor. You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. "She had suffered at least two strokes; she had lost much of her vision, so she was partially blind; she couldn't walk," Pinto said. On your mark, get set, go. "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. The famous surgeon, a miracle worker who gives hope to hopeless patients, who's rewriting the rules of medicine. [00:25:22] Bob: And while Paolo loves to talk about his work, he isn't always charming. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Journalist Benita Alexander (right) has revealed chilling clues that disclosed her lover and famed surgeon Paolo Macchiarini as a "romance scammer", The two fell for each other when Benita was interviewing Macchiarini for a story, The couple planned a lavish wedding set to take place in 2015 that felt too good to be true after Macchiarini said the Pope would officiate it, Benita decided to hire a private investigator, which led to her discovering her famous surgeon lover was actually facing legal trouble over his innovative techniques, Benita said she left her job of 17 years to marry Macchiarini, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). Macchiarini proposed to Alexander on Christmas Day in 2013. What started as dream relationship developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit. Macchiarini remains married to Emanuela Pecchia, his wife of nearly 30 years. This is a surgeon. Then, one morning, she read in The New York Times that Macchiarini's colleagues at the Karolinska Institute had accused him of scientific misconduct and filed a complaint with the university. It's a very aggressive form of brain cancer. He had told her, as personal surgeon to the Pope, the leader of the Catholic church wanted to marry the couple, she explained. She had already spent good money on her wedding preparations. "The Experiments" told the stories of some of Maccharini's patients, including young mother Julia Tuulik, who damaged her trachea in a car accident. The couple had the wedding planned for July 2015. I mean we were there to speak about science, so I thought, okay. I also believe that exposing what happened, and exposing him, might keep him from hurting others. That was insane. And it's a beautiful building, and it just has this feeling about it, you know, as you, it's a very special feeling too. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. I don't know what I was. We had 300+ people coming from all over the world. Its so damaging. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. On what was supposed to be the day of her wedding, Alexander flew to Rome, where she eventually met others who'd kept their travel plans. Her new podcast "Benita and the Berracas," will feature Benita talking to other women who open up to her about their own love conned stories, along with advice on how to avoid becoming a victim. Death." ", Alexander, who waited in the car, said that the last time she saw Macchiarini, he had turned around and walked back up the stairs. 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. "I couldn't fall apart because I am a single mother with a daughter who needs me. "He didnt know Pope Francis, he wasnt his personal doctor.". The providers terms, conditions and policies apply. [00:19:03] Benita: (laugh) Yeah, yep, yeah. Alexander said she never thought she'd be part of Macchiarini's life, particularly because he was a subject in her work. I want to focus on work. And spent months, you know, this did not happen overnight. Her first marriage was to fellow journalist John Noel. 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. It hired Bengt Gerdin, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, who spent six months examining some of Macchiarini's papers for evidence of research misconduct and in May 2015 determined that he was guilty, writing in his report that Macchiarini had made false claims about his patients' conditions improving, failed to report severe complications in some patients and made it seem as if some patients had been healthier for longer than they'd actually been following their surgeries. Thats what I have the power to do now. Benita Alexander has been working as a Macchiarini at NBC News. She was devasted to learn all the lies told by Macchiarini. 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. Her mother was Korean, and her dad, Canadian. See production, box office & company info, Fatal Experiments: The Downfall of a Supersurgeon. [00:11:57] Benita: Ooh, you're going to make me do math. Alexander was assigned to work on the documentary about Paolo Macchiarini who has considered a pioneer in organ transplant. But despite his seemingly busy schedule, Alexander said Macchiarini offered to plan their wedding. [00:17:24] Bob: He was there when she needed somebody. He was listed as one of . The personal relationship between Alexander and Macchiarini continued to blossom. It's, it's a very um, it has a lot of stature, that building and a lot of meaning. 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? The documentary includes never-before-seen footage and photos and shows Alexanders search for the truth after such a shocking betrayal of the heart. This is totally different. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini fall in love Alexander, an award-winning documentary TV producer, met Macchiarini in 2013 while working on a story about the surgeon's pioneering work. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music| Spotify | Stitcher|TuneIn. In 2015, she served as a co-executive producer on Breaking the Silence, which featured DWTS pro Cheryl Burke, and Counting On alums Jessa Seewald and Jill Duggar Dillard. So first it was about the wedding gown itself. And then every month there was a new surprise. And I said, "Well how's that going to work, because we're both divorcees," or so I thought, and I'm not Catholic. Lindquist had begun his own investigation into the claims brought forth by Macchiarini's colleagues. We had been divorced for a couple of years at that point and for three years, and he was diagnosed with glioblastoma which is a very, there's no good kind of cancer, no good kind of brain cancer, but the, you know, the outlook is not good, you know they, they kind of give someone two years at the most. [00:21:22] Benita: Tragically, Hannah passed away, which was, um, just devastating. And so I did, you know, I sat back, and even when I was tempted to ask questions, I didn't. Just like, oh, the dance dress was crazy. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. So this is not really out of the realm of possibility that he would have contacts at the Vatican. [00:02:26] Bob: I remember walking into 30 Rock thinking it was the equivalent of walking into Yankee Stadium or something. She soon discovered that as she lived an apparent fairy tale romance -- with someone who not only seemed to care for her and her daughter but also lavished her with expensive gifts and trips -- others were already searching for the truth about Macchiarini. [00:34:59] Bob: When you went to her house, was Paolo there? I had to understand what happened and why. It really affects you. By the time he performed the artificial trachea transplant on Cetir, he had already performed the same procedure on four other patients. I think he was looking for challenges, and uh, things that makes life much, much more exciting. 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. [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. [00:33:44] Bob: And you, you had outfitted Broadway stars, famous people, but even for you this was a big deal. 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. An astonishing true story of love, betrayal and unimaginable deception. Benita Alexander is a strong, independent, intelligent, warm, and loving woman who thought she found her love connection with a man that swept her off her feet, much like prince charming! He was, he was just there when I needed somebody. And I tend to be a very empathetic kind of person, and I am very sensitive, and I care a lot about people and so I've always used that in journalism to really sort of get inside somebody else's shoes or, or their story. Alexander is well-known for her career in production and film and was also in a relationship scam that made headlines and fueled her documentary, "He Lied About Everything." Benita is the Executive Producer of the documentary film, He Lied About Everything, which premiered in the U.S. in 2018 on Investigation Discovery, and continues to be broadcast around the world. With the preparations nearly finished, Benita decides to take maybe the toughest step she's ever taken in her 20-year career as a journalist. She said Macchiarini had told her that for their wedding, the Vatican had offered them the pope's summer residence in the Italian town of Castel Gandolfo. Give it to me. Alexander was working on a documentary about Macchiarini's success in the medical field. Exploring the troubling tales of people manipulated by claims and promises that proved too good to be true, it reveals how the perpetrator fooled their victims and made them pay the price for their misplaced trust both emotionally and financially. What started as dream relationship developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit. As a producer, for me that was next to impossible. And he said, "Just tell me when you want to stop." After sweeping Alexander off her feet by taking her to jet-setting and romantic locales all over the world for months, Macchiarini proposed. 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. He worked at the place that awards the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden. At the time, Macchiarini was employed by the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden. And Paolo never talks about his personal life. A successful TV journalist, the single mother-of-one was interviewing him for a report on cutting-edge medicine. In fact, the scientist was embroiled in lawsuits and accusations at work. I was so conflicted about it. Alexander was assigned to work on the documentary about Paolo Macchiarini who has considered a pioneer in organ transplant. Oh my God, um, confident. Macchiarini had been credited with developing innovative surgical techniques using stem cells in synthetic trachea transplants. "He was a top doctor, he spoke six or seven languages. 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. [00:04:24] Benita: Right, yeah, and they're not always happy endings, and you do, you, unfortunately, you know, you report on a lot of very, very difficult things in news. If I had a checklist, he, he was everything I would want in a partner, everything you would want in a man. It does so much unnecessary damage. I loved my life at NBC. So just under two months before the wedding, and it was just difficult. [00:12:46] Benita: Oh yeah, no, I immediately just sort of shoved it down and thought whatever that was, it was, it was silly, and uh, let's forget about that. In the course of that operation, the surgeons had nicked her trachea. Corbascio called the decision "absolutely insane.". It defeats the point, Benita recently said. When she continued to press Macchiarini about the pope, she said he blamed Vatican politics, alleging that the more conservative former Pope Benedict went behind Pope Francis' back to stop him from officiating the wedding. [00:35:41] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, and we definitely um, we made sure that through this process, we made sure we took care of her, you know what I mean. She was floored when he told her John Legend would sing at their wedding and Pope Francis would officiate. And I was really wrestling with all of it. You know, the equivalent of going to a drugstore and buying whatever, you, they, the idea is ultimately we'll get to the point that, you know, you have a failing organ or you lose a body part, you just order up a new one. He's also never spoken publicly about his relationship with Alexander. As Alexander began to unravel the web of lies Macchiarini had told her, she began to wonder if the world-renowned thoracic surgeon had also misled people in his professional life. [00:00:34] Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. And that presence was really something, it was really something. 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. The slip from "Prince Charming to pathological liar" took place over just two years, she said. How does one design a wedding dress for a wedding [00:34:25] Matthew Christopher: With the Pope? [00:34:35] Bob: The first step is working with Benita on ideas for the wedding dress. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. Alexander hired a private investigator to investigate all the secrets and lies about Macchiarini. Are you new to podcasts? And it was very difficult for us um, with the story because, you know, we had all hoped for one of these happy endings, you know, this was, the hope was to do a two-hour special, and at the end of it, you know, Hannah's home in South Korea, running around the backyard with her, her big sister, and you know, being a happy toddler as, as she should have been all along, and you know, Hannah was the most vibrant little girl.
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