And, and, and embraced me and held me so hard. So I just found him very, I don't want to say intimidating, because intimidating's not the word. 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. She works in Rockefeller Center and flies all around the world, and on one of these trip, she meets the man of her dreams. 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. He is Italian. You know, "You've, you've renewed my faith in love.". Benita has spoken about her experience in numerous national and international TV and radio programs. I was like why, why are you videotaping me again. [00:12:41] Bob: And you went forward with that weekend pushing the feeling aside, right? And it was, it was things like this all the time. Benita is still wearing the second ring throughout the documentary! Macchiarini has not yet entered a plea, but has denied all of the charges. I mean I'm going to achieve this; you know what I mean? 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. "I made a very strategic decision to start playing a cat-and-mouse game, basically," she said. Then, two years later, her father, whod married a neighbor, asked her to pack up her bags and leave for good. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. She was floored when he told her John Legend would sing at their wedding and Pope Francis would officiate. 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 failing organ. But as the wedding planning continued, Alexander's fianc became increasingly embroiled in work-related issues. Uh, I think he actually appreciated being challenged to an extent. Subtitles English [CC] Audio languages English Buy Season 1 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. 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. In response to Gerdin's report, Macchiarini denied all the findings. After relocating to New York, Benita worked for NBC and was featured in NBC's documentary "A Leap of Faith" in 2013. [00:33:22] Matthew Christopher: 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. In the course of that operation, the surgeons had nicked her trachea. It really affects you. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. And that frees up Benita to go public about their relationship. And whatever that is, let's, let's push that away, you know. [00:30:37] Bob: So now that she's been told the Pope is involved, Benita has another secret to keep. And it's Paolo who helps Benita figure out the best way to say goodbye. [00:36:55] Bob: Benita, the TV producer, is very used to managing all the details of a big event. 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. With the celebrations set to last four days, Alexander had her dress designer make four different gowns. www.aarp.org/volunteer. Benita Alexander is an American television producer, director, writer, and reporter. 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. Macchiarini claims the synthetic trachea didn't shorten Tuulik's life or the lives of any of his other patients, or cause their deaths. [00:04:24] 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. Macchiarini did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. She was devasted to learn all the lies told by Macchiarini. "And then I want him to be held accountable. He speaks 5 or 6 languages, and he works all over the world, and you know, dresses very beautifully. 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. Hosted by Benita Alexander. So just under two months before the wedding, and it was just difficult. My friends and my family all adored him. So first it was about the wedding gown itself. [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. When her ex-husband died, Macchiarini helped Alexander cope. 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. Paolo Macchiarini proposes to Benita Alexander before leaving US for work: Part 2Alexander seemed to be living a fantasy lifestyle. [00:02:15] Bob: Still a young journalist, she found her way to the top of her profession very quickly. 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 pursuing a big story when the ill-fated lovers met in 2013. [00:17:35] Benita: Around this time that my ex-husband, John, passed away, we became romantically involved. "It was the weirdest thing," Alexander said. I had to expose him.". [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. [00:31:32] Bob: I mean that sounds like a very special process. But the biopsies showed the cells were dead and that there was actually fungi growing on the plastic, he said. [00:31:04] Matthew Christopher: I'm a couture wedding gown designer. Which sounds a bit absurd, however, he is an Italian surgeon. [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. I did not think that by pulling that thread, we would completely undo the sweater.". 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. "From that moment on, it felt like my head was spinning," Alexander said, "and it didn't stop spinning.". I don't know if I was nervous. Um, and so he had, we were coming back into the room after dinner one night, and I was kind of teasing him. 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.'". I was, I was conflicted about it. "The Experiments" told the stories of some of Maccharini's patients, including young mother Julia Tuulik, who damaged her trachea in a car accident. Come on. I thought he was playing some kind of silly game with me. Yeah. I'll take care of it." [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. Her first marriage was to fellow journalist John Noel. Of course, it's Valentine's Day, I'm like, oh my God. [00:19:53] Bob: While the romance is intense, it's also very secretive. At the time, Macchiarini was employed by the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden. I was like, 'What is happening to Benita,'" Alexander's friend, Marian Fontana, said. [00:19:03] Benita: (laugh) Yeah, yep, yeah. Sought after worldwide, people believed Macchiarini would one day revolutionize the field of organ transplantation, journalist Bo Lindquist said. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. 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. 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. 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. She couldn't do anything that a normal child could do. The famous surgeon, a miracle worker who gives hope to hopeless patients, who's rewriting the rules of medicine. "When I started reading specifically the papers that Paolo himself had written, then we could quite quickly come to the conclusion that what was written in the papers was not what was going on in reality," Corbascio said. 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. He was, he was just there when I needed somebody. It defeats the point, Benita recently said. And basically giving up everything. 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. In fact, he told me that Paolo would often leave their interview to engage in some frantic texting with someone, probably a lover, probably Benita. I really felt that we made a difference, you know, we, our story played a huge role, I think, in paving the way for him to finally bring his son home, and those are the kind of things that really mean a lot, at least to me in journalism. 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. [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. Lindquist's three-part documentary series "The Experiments" began airing just over a week after the damning Vanity Fair article was published in early January 2016. [00:15:28] Bob: As Hannah's story becomes more intense, the news on Benita's ex-husband, John, gets worse. , Yeah just difficult of medicine weekend pushing the feeling aside, right an American television producer is... 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