"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. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music| Spotify | Stitcher|TuneIn. But as the wedding planning continued, Alexander's fianc became increasingly embroiled in work-related issues. 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. In 2013, the successful documentary producer met world-renowned, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini while working on a project for a major network. And so he took me on his motorcycle along the Illinois River. In February, 2021 it was featured as a two-hour special on ABCs 20/20. Her story is now featured as the third season of Wondery's hit podcast, "Dr. My then ex-husband, who I had moved to New York with and the father of our beautiful daughter, was dying of brain cancer. Not, not that kind of just instant, immediate spark. Prior to this, Benita spent 17 years in network television, producing long-form documentaries, breaking news, investigations, specials and hard news features for NBC. She later tied the knot with a ballroom instructor Edson Jeune in 2012, yet even that didnt work out. 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. So it was scary. [00:18:58] Bob: I love you in rose petals on the bed. [00:34:42] Matthew Christopher: We were going to meet later, so we just discussed the idea and it started with the wedding gown itself, and then had dinner at her house, and made dinner, and it was fun, and we were discussing things and how all these pieces were going to grow. [00:35:01] Matthew Christopher: No, no, just her friends who are so much fun. A contact she had to the Clintons told her they'd never heard of Macchiarini. And she was Daddy's Little Girl. [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. Together, they'd spend long weekends traveling to different countries, like Mexico, Russia and Greece. 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. Along the way he promises her a fairy tale wedding to be officiated by the Pope. She works in Rockefeller Center and flies all around the world, and on one of these trip, she meets the man of her dreams. Benita Alexander is an American television producer, director, writer, and reporter. Creating artificial body parts. 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. "He didnt know Pope Francis, he wasnt his personal doctor.". [00:31:00] Bob: One of those nondisclosure agreements is signed by Matthew Christopher. [00:08:01] Bob: Benita knows she wants to do a special about Paolo's work, but she needs a story, a patient that viewers can follow from beginning to end. [00:12:41] Bob: And you went forward with that weekend pushing the feeling aside, right? [00:17:24] Bob: He was there when she needed somebody. [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. [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. She said she'd never fantasized about a "Prince Charming." Alexander said she never thought she'd be part of Macchiarini's life, particularly because he was a subject in her work. They become engaged and plan a lavish dream wedding, to be attended by celebrities and officiated by none other than Pope Francis himself. [00:10:23] Benita: Yeah, the thing about this was, I am, and I'm, I'm very serious when I work. And so it was kind of the perfect case for us to focus our story around. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. He says to me, "I want to take over the wedding planning and I want to surprise you with everything. Which sounds a bit absurd, however, he is an Italian surgeon. Maybe help me, help with the invitations 'cause I don't want to deal with that. Claiming he was in demand. If you want to tell somebody's story well, it, it helps if you can really tell it from their perspective. On your mark, get set, go. Journalist Benita Alexander is swept off her feet by a dashing Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, while filming a documentary about his miraculous surgeries. He speaks 5 or 6 languages, and he works all over the world, and you know, dresses very beautifully. [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? You know, no, how do we take viewers through a two-hour journey of this little girl coming, you know, halfway across the world to get this radical surgery, and then she doesn't make it? 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. In September 2020, Swedish prosecutors announced charges against Macchiarini for aggravated assault in connection to three surgeries that he had performed at the Karolinska University Hospital, including Cetir's. [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. "From that moment on, it felt like my head was spinning," Alexander said, "and it didn't stop spinning.". Hosted by Benita Alexander. [00:40:30] Benita: Paolo lived in Barcelona, and so we had talked about what were we going to do after the wedding. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. And whatever that is, let's, let's push that away, you know. Journalist Benita Alexander is swept off her feet by a dashing Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, while filming a documentary about his miraculous surgeries. [00:24:45] Bo Lindquist: I mean he basically said that he was going to revolutionize medicine, and, and not just invent a new kind of a trachea or a new kind of transplant, but actually revolutionize surgery. If I had a checklist, he, he was everything I would want in a partner, everything you would want in a man. He has peoples lives in his hands.. Macchiarini ran into some legal trouble regarding his stem cell treatments with Swedish prosecutors recently appealing a sentence given to the Italian surgeon, the Associated Press reported. 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. Benita has to keep a secret. She won a slew of honors for her work with the greatest in television reporting, including two Emmys. She is also the CEO of Berraca Productions, a company she founded to further her advocacy work empowering women who are the survivors of fraud. 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. 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. [00:25:49] Bob: But, and this made him a fun interview, he doesn't mind debating his controversial techniques. 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. The couple had the wedding planned for July 2015. 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. He's also had his artificial trachea removed. How do we, how do we tell this story? And the stem cells were supposed to magically integrate, and he was fixing people. This story is extremely personal and difficult for me to share, but the journalist in me couldnt let it be, Alexander says in the release. And so now his son, who I think was about 8 or 9 at the time, was in Brazil with her family, and he was engaged in this very difficult and complicated fight to try and get his son back, and such a loving father. However, while filming with Macchiarini, Alexander's ex-husband, the father of her young daughter, had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The famous surgeon, a miracle worker who gives hope to hopeless patients, who's rewriting the rules of medicine. Are you new to podcasts? Most importantly, though, we need to mention that Benita not only attended the former doctor/her former fiancs trial in Sweden, but she also covered it as a correspondent for season 3 of the Dr. There's so much she couldn't do, but she had this sparkling personality. 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. [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. You are no longer 21 !!! "The woman in Barcelona was not his wife. That makes me crazy. Both have covered Macchiarini in their work. 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! It was at this point that Benita said she started to feel that something was not right. Their guest list, Alexander said, included Elton John, the Beckhams, the Obamas, the Clintons and Russell Crowe. The scale . [00:31:56] Bob: Benita sees a dress made by Christopher in a New York City store, but it isn't quite right. You know, "You've, you've renewed my faith in love.". 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. I was just giddy with happiness. [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. Best Known For For her appearance in ID Now (2017), Dateline NBC (1992) and Inside the Obama White House (2009). Macchiarini.". Alexander had already sent invitations to her closed ones. And I was really wrestling with all of it. The couple shares a daughter named Jessina, born in 2003. You will be asked to register or log in. And these were all couples that were quote-unquote living in sin, you know, they had children out of wedlock, or whatever. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try 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. [00:41:50] Benita: The day after I quit my job, I got an email from a colleague and the headline just said, "The Pope." In her personal life, she's also looking for a medical miracle, a miracle that, well it wasn't going to come. And so I did, you know, I sat back, and even when I was tempted to ask questions, I didn't. But despite his seemingly busy schedule, Alexander said Macchiarini offered to plan their wedding. Um, (laugh) I was uh, in my 40s. 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. He actually brought him home on Christmas Day, and he and I are still in touch. The third season, called "Dr. Death: Miracle Man" includes 6 episodes, along with a bonus episode that is an interview with Benita by host Laura Beil. The group eventually grew into four doctors, who compared the journal reports Macchiarini had published about his procedure -- all of which reported relatively positive results -- to the actual medical records of those patients. 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. [00:10:16] Bob: And when they meet, well Benita is stunned by what happens. The slip from "Prince Charming to pathological liar" took place over just two years, she said. [00:26:36] Benita: Paolo wanted a big, Catholic wedding. I didn't even, I, I, I stopped in hesitation. [00:23:44] Bo Lindquist: Paolo was very well-dressed and very careful with his looks. "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. 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. 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[00:17:51] Bob: Their relationship blossoms quickly. And so we were looking into this field, and we found this doctor. [00:34:59] Bob: When you went to her house, was Paolo there? And spent months, you know, this did not happen overnight. As these events were unfolding, Maccharini allowed Lindquist to follow him for a documentary film. "I couldn't fall apart because I am a single mother with a daughter who needs me. [00:35:21] Bob: It does sound like the kind, I mean we were talking about what, 10 gowns? When her ex-husband died, Macchiarini helped Alexander cope. Subtle message to him, perhaps. Macchiarini had reported that after his first patient underwent the procedure, a healthy trachea was beginning to develop, Lindquist said. It's, it's a very um, it has a lot of stature, that building and a lot of meaning. It was killing me, and but I was also so in love with him. receive communications related to AARP volunteering. She couldn't do anything that a normal child could do. 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. (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 . [00:23:10] Bo Lindquist: The first time was in Stockholm at the Karolinska Institute. She said she called the castle where all the guests were supposed to be staying and asked them about the reservation, which they didn't have. I think he needs to be behind bars. Alexander was in head over heels for Macchiarini. In October, 2020, her story was the premiere episode of ABC's primetime series, "The Con," hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. After relocating to New York, Benita worked for NBC and was featured in NBC's documentary "A Leap of Faith" in 2013. Macchiarini claims the synthetic trachea didn't shorten Tuulik's life or the lives of any of his other patients, or cause their deaths. [00:32:33] Matthew Christopher: (laugh) She said to me as I um, she said to me, "Well, Matthew, (or team)" she goes, "Well, I'm getting married by the Pope." 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. In June 2013, they flew to Venice for what Alexander called an incredibly romantic weekend.. Alexander, who said she'd become close to the girl's family, was "devastated," and that Macchiarini was "depressed" about it, as they both had become attached to her. Benita Alexander-Noel was born on April 21, 1966 in Australia. Well actually, dresses. If your response is to point a finger at a victim, thats really sad. ", Jupiter and Venus appear to 'kiss' in the sky, What is graupel? 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. She finds that story in South Korea. Fans can also watch He Lied About Everything on InvestigationDiscovery.com. What is happening? And then every month there was a new surprise. He was a flair for the dramatic and plans one romantic encounter after another. He is one of the world's leading cardio thoracic surgeons. And he said, you know, I actually met with Pope Francis. And I went, What? You know and he said, And I, I have great news. Um, Hes, hes going to help us um, were going to have somebody that will marry us, and he offered to do it himself. You know I said, What? You know, and I actually kind of called BS on him because I, I said, Thats absurd. They make it for you in the lab, right. I was, I was conflicted about it. 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." I'm, you know, I like, I like information. Of the eight patients given artificial tracheas by Macchiarini, only one is still alive today. And that's where we met for the first time. During her investigation into Macchiarini, Alexander hired private investigators in the U.S. and Italy. Benita Alexander has been married twice. Hearings are expected to begin in 2022. And we finally decided that we would live in Barcelona. I don't know if I was nervous. 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