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. But as the wedding planning continued, Alexander's fianc became increasingly embroiled in work-related issues. 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. 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 going to be this four-day event in Rome, you know, with a red carpet event the night before the wedding, and a big brunch the day after the wedding, and people bought plane tickets, they bought fancy, you know, red carpet attire for this wedding. 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. I truly was for a period there, happier than I think I've ever been. "I couldn't fall apart because I am a single mother with a daughter who needs me. I'm, you know, I like, I like information. "He and I started going to dinners and I was kind of pouring my heart out to him about all this stuff. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Their guest list, Alexander said, included Elton John, the Beckhams, the Obamas, the Clintons and Russell Crowe. ABC7's Dallas Raines explains the difference, Jury selection begins for convicted torturer accused of escaping jail. But everything else, I'm planning everything, and you can't ask me any questions." 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. Macchiarini and Benita quickly started planning an extravagant wedding, she said. [00:00:03] He was incredibly generous, you know, and so romantic and just so wonderful. [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. 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. She had already spent good money on her wedding preparations. As a producer, for me that was next to impossible. receive communications related to AARP volunteering. Yeah. 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. Among several lies, Macchiarini told Alexander, one of those was Pope Francis officiating their wedding. And then John Legend was supposed to be playing piano in the church. So I just found him very, I don't want to say intimidating, because intimidating's not the word. She found out exactly what hed lied about - and she said it was extensive. Macchiarini did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. 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. They make it for you in the lab, right. 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. 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. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music| Spotify | Stitcher|TuneIn. I mean it was, I felt butterflies, you know. I was just kind of like, um, 'cause Benita's so awesome and like, you know she was totally in love with him. Journalist Benita Alexander is swept off her feet by a dashing Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, while filming a documentary about his miraculous surgeries. 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. He is one of the world's leading cardio thoracic surgeons. 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. But the former NBC News producer would come to find out the hard way that even the most glamorous and convincing of appearances can be deceiving. And he's getting noticed in the medical field. It was at this point that Benita said she started to feel that something was not right. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. In need of a lung transplant, doctors arranged to transfer her to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. And it was, when I walked back to the motorcycle, he kind of, he just got off the motorcycle and I walked up to him, and I had tears streaming down my face, and he, he just grabbed me, you know. And he was putting artificial tracheas, the windpipe, into patients. Perfect. The Love Con: Directed by Star Price. I mean my, I mean my jaw was on the floor. Alexander didn't initially believe him, but she said Macchiarini told her that the pope wanted to push forward his progressive agenda for the church. Firstly , on a personal observation , girl , you absolutely need a makeover. After she called Macchiarini, furious about what she'd read, she began to wonder what else he might have lied about. Meanwhile, the doctors were still trying to save Cetir's life. He says to me, "I want to take over the wedding planning and I want to surprise you with everything. She started her career at a local news station before moving on to work at NBC in New York. ABC News produced a tv series, The Con, that explores stories of people taken in by claims and promises that proved too good to be true, revealing how the victims were fooled and the cost of their false trust. But before the wedding can happen, Benita makes a . None of the promises Alexander said her fianc Paolo Macchiarini had made for their wedding day would come true. And I just thought, okay, you've got some stupid little schoolgirl crush on this doctor, which is absurd. 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. "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. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? He actually brought him home on Christmas Day, and he and I are still in touch. And he came to visit us in Australia, and I was just, I was only 8, but I was ab--, absolutely infatuated with what he was doing and asked him all these questions. You know, all these celebrities were coming. And I got so irritated with him, I actually hung the phone up on him. Since her romance with Paolo imploded in 2015, the brunette beauty has continued working on documentaries and docuseries'. 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. "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. I mean it got to the point where he loved to surprise me, everywhere we went. "She was having problems with infections so, at that point, she came into contact with Dr. I was torn up about it, and my last day at NBC was in May of 2015. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Lindquist said the documentary sparked outrage in Sweden, and weeks later, new investigations into Macchiarini began. Benita Alexander, an award-winning documentary television producer and single mother, shares her story in ABC's "The Con." ABC News At the time, Macchiarini was employed by the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden. [00:08:14] Benita: But we, we started looking into him, and then he was about to do a transplant on this beautiful, beautiful little toddler, um, her name was Hannah, from Seoul, South Korea. Of course, it's Valentine's Day, I'm like, oh my God. 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. And right about then, across the Atlantic Ocean, Bo is about to find out the real truth about Paolo too. 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. Creating artificial body parts. [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. And everybody was sort of envious in a, in a sweet way, you know, everybody would say to me, "I want what you have." I want him to look around that courtroom and see the families of the patients whose lives he destroyed, and see my face and at last be forced for whatever few seconds to look us all in the eye and maybe understand what he did," Alexander said. 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. related to AARP volunteering. Alexander hired a private investigator to investigate all the secrets and lies about Macchiarini. But there was something, yeah, something happened between us the, the moment we met. "He comes around the corner, he looks right at me and in that second something happened. Documentary producer Benita Alexander thought it was love when her job introduced her to internationally renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. 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. Capping off a whirlwind romance filled with gondola rides in Venice and quiet dinners in the Greek islands, she was promised a wedding in the Italian countryside officiated by the Pope himself. [00:13:10] Benita: When I met Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, and when I was working on this story, I was at an extremely vulnerable place in my life. 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. See the shocking new details about Paolo Macchiarini's alleged medical crimes, new interviews and new revelations Friday on "20/20" at 9 p.m. Gerdin also said Macchiarini had failed to obtain ethical permits to perform the transplants, which he said amounted to experimentation on human subjects. [00:17:24] Bob: He was there when she needed somebody. I'll take care of it." For other inquiries, Contact Us. Benita Alexanders personal life story was part of the documentary film, He Lied About Everything. Thats what I have the power to do now. What started as dream relationship developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit. And we finally decided that we would live in Barcelona. He was kind of a rebel. I mean we were there to speak about science, so I thought, okay. [00:34:59] Bob: When you went to her house, was Paolo there? For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard. And these were all couples that were quote-unquote living in sin, you know, they had children out of wedlock, or whatever. By what name was He Lied About Everything (2018) officially released in Canada in English? It was, it was really, really difficult. What is happening? 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. Emmy Award Winning . Um, I almost actually passed out. I couldn't fall apart because if he's lying to me like this, there's no way he's not lying in his medical and professional life.". She won a slew of honors for her work with the greatest in television reporting, including two Emmys. 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? [00:34:17] Bob: Well, at some point you transition from wow to okay, I've got to get to work on this, right? [00:15:45] Benita: There was a particular moment when my ex-husband had gone into a coma, and I was in Illinois, and I was, I was um, very upset about everything and trying to figure out a way, I was talking to Paolo about trying to figure out what to do and how to say goodbye, and uh crying about the fact that I hadn't been able to say goodbye. "He said he was having trouble finding a priest to marry us," she said. En Espanol The university even cited some of the whistleblowers, reprimanding them for their participation in some of Macchiarini's papers. I was, I was conflicted about it. [00:35:01] Matthew Christopher: No, no, just her friends who are so much fun. And he said, "Just tell me when you want to stop." She later tied the knot with a ballroom instructor Edson Jeune in 2012, yet even that didnt work out. You know, "What did he do this time? It could go out the window. "I was angry as hell. [00:23:44] Bo Lindquist: Paolo was very well-dressed and very careful with his looks. And I was really wrestling with all of it. Hosted by Benita Alexander. Its so damaging. [00:39:32] Bob: And as the day approaches, Benita gets to try on that custom-made wedding dress. And I was ready to ride off into the sunset, into this new life in Barcelona, and but it was also a very, very difficult decision for me. 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." Powered by WordPress.com VIP. With Whoopi Goldberg. It was, it was a huge change and a huge change for my daughter. Documentary producer Benita Alexander thought it was love when her job introduced her to internationally renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. [00:24:20] Bo Lindquist: When we made our initial agreement to, to start filming, he said that his uh, personal life would be out of bounds, and I mean a bit odd that, that we couldn't even talk about where he went to school or, or something like that, but why should we? 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 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." 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