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. I'll take care of it." I'm, you know, I like, I like information. Benita is still wearing the second ring throughout the documentary! How does one design a wedding dress for a wedding [00:34:25] Matthew Christopher: With the Pope? 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. 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. [00:03:01] Benita: Yeah, one of the ones um, there was a father in New Jersey, whose wife had abducted their son to Brazil, parental abduction, which is when one parent takes the child, against the other parent's will to another country. Benita Alexander, and swept her off her feet with a marriage proposal and promises of a wedding . And so does anyone who has anything to do with the wedding. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. 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. 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. After she called Macchiarini, furious about what she'd read, she began to wonder what else he might have lied about. And Paolo never talks about his personal life. Macchiarini took Alexander to several romantic getaways in Europe. 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. The couple had the wedding planned for July 2015. This is a true you must see it to believe it tale, with so many twists and turns, it will leave viewers stunned, asking only how this could have actually happened, Schleiff says. 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. [00:25:22] Bob: And while Paolo loves to talk about his work, he isn't always charming. Her colleague had sent an article that said the pope would not be in Rome, or even Italy, on the day of their wedding. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. "From that moment on, it felt like my head was spinning," Alexander said, "and it didn't stop spinning.". "She was having problems with infections so, at that point, she came into contact with Dr. He gave me really sage, solid, kind advice.". I said, I just, I can't do this. She was 100% Daddy's Little Girl, and he utterly adored her. Oh my God, um, confident. A love story gone bad for Benita Alexander, an award-winning documentary television producer and Paolo Macchiarini, an internationally renowned surgeon. "I talked to my editors and we started thinking, 'Well, let's just keep pulling on this thread. again. And it's, I was proud to work there. They set their wedding for 11 July 2015 in Rome. 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. You know he; he was sort of like Mr. [00:17:24] Bob: He was there when she needed somebody. [00:34:17] Bob: Well, at some point you transition from wow to okay, I've got to get to work on this, right? 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. "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. "I have some really high-powered clients," she said he told her. Just like, oh, the dance dress was crazy. In 2013, the successful documentary producer met world-renowned, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini while working on a project for a major network. [00:22:38] Bob: What Benita doesn't know at the time, she couldn't have known, is that Hannah's death also sparks the interest of the European journalist named Bo Lindquist, a Swedish filmmaker, he's already working on a documentary film about Paolo, but it isn't designed with a happy ending in mind. Since her romance with Paolo imploded in 2015, the brunette beauty has continued working on documentaries and docuseries. This was, I didn't even know what to say. You are no longer 21 !!! 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. He spent months supposedly going to different churches in Italy, and he would send me pictures of these places, and all these details, and asked me if I liked them or not. 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? And I literally, I was really like, what? "He was a good listener and gave me sage and solid advice.". You will be asked to register or log in. I truly was for a period there, happier than I think I've ever been. He was often described as a George Clooney look-alike, you know, he's, he's very elegant. I'm never viewed like that, but I was definitely like, huh? Macchiarini denied the accusations coming from his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute to Alexander, and she doubled down on supporting Macchiarini. In need of a lung transplant, doctors arranged to transfer her to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. His work, if controversial, is also groundbreaking. What do they discover? He was listed as one of . They become engaged and plan a lavish dream wedding, to be attended by celebrities and officiated by none other than Pope Francis himself. [00:39:32] Bob: And as the day approaches, Benita gets to try on that custom-made wedding dress. 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. And somehow, when I read that email, I guess all those little red flags that I had been ignoring, the things that were eating at my gut, I just knew. What to tell her. [00:25:56] Bob: How did he take to being questioned? They make it for you in the lab, right. Together, they'd spend long weekends traveling to different countries, like Mexico, Russia and Greece. And right about then, across the Atlantic Ocean, Bo is about to find out the real truth about Paolo too. And so he took me on his motorcycle along the Illinois River. Sought after worldwide, people believed Macchiarini would one day revolutionize the field of organ transplantation, journalist Bo Lindquist said. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. We have somebody who has been brave enough to share something thats already humiliating and devastating. And I said, "Well how's that going to work, because we're both divorcees," or so I thought, and I'm not Catholic. The couple shares a daughter named Jessina, born in 2003. 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.". [00:31:42] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, I do, you know, I've done tons of celebrity stuff, tons of Broadway stuff. 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? Excellent place. It was eight months later when they became properly engaged after Macchiarini presented her with a $100K ring. In 2013, she was featured in the NBC documentary "A Leap of Faith." She has won numerous awards for her work. And I open the door, and there's a trail of rose petals leading up to the bed, and it says "I love you" in rose petals on the bed. ABC News reported that Macchiarini has never spoken publicly about his relationship with Benita. Alexander hired a private investigator to investigate all the secrets and lies about Macchiarini. 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 was blissfully happy. Then, two years later, her father, whod married a neighbor, asked her to pack up her bags and leave for good. I want, I just want to get the job done. But everything else, I'm planning everything, and you can't ask me any questions.". [00:23:14] Bo Lindquist: And then we traveled to different places. And he's Italian, and he wanted this big Catholic wedding in Italy. You can also manage your communication preferences by updating your account at anytime. Are you new to podcasts? He actually brought him home on Christmas Day, and he and I are still in touch. The Perfect ScamSMis a project of theAARP Fraud Watch Network, which equips consumers like you with the knowledge to give you power over scams. He was a flair for the dramatic and plans one romantic encounter after another. View this post on Instagram By the time he performed the artificial trachea transplant on Cetir, he had already performed the same procedure on four other patients. She said one question was heavy on her mind: "Why did you do this to me, why would you do that to anybody? I don't know if I was nervous. You know he loves to surprise you. related to AARP volunteering. It defeats the point, Benita recently said. In her personal life, she's also looking for a medical miracle, a miracle that, well it wasn't going to come. [00:34:26] Matthew Christopher: You put your, I am going to make the most gorgeous dress you've ever seen. And then every month there was a new surprise. 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. I mean, I got this sort of chill through my body, like there was some sort of electric spark, and I remember, in my head, thinking, 'What the hell was that?'". Her daughter has thus been the only constant in her life. 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. 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. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. And then um, (sigh) oh her sisters, the two bridesmaids, and then two flower girl dresses. www.aarp.org/volunteer. All Bo knew was that Paolo was very charming. "He and I started going to dinners and I was kind of pouring my heart out to him about all this stuff. 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. (chuckle). In 2019, the film was nominated in the documentary category for the WIN Awards, Women's Image Network. And her parents were just distraught, you know, they wanted, they had been told she might live 6 or 7 years, and there's no cure. "He was a top doctor, he spoke six or seven languages. I was just giddy with happiness. Alexander was assigned to work on the documentary about Paolo Macchiarini who has considered a pioneer in organ transplant. 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. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try [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. He's also had his artificial trachea removed. And I also had my beard uh, uh, cut there. [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. [00:34:35] Bob: The first step is working with Benita on ideas for the wedding dress. And that presence was really something, it was really something. [00:09:12] Bob: And so, Benita travels to Boston to meet the miracle worker for herself. But this magic carpet ride takes so many twists and turns that well, you just have to hear them for yourself. 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. A contact she had to the Clintons told her they'd never heard of Macchiarini. [00:35:38] Bob: I mean it sounds like that could cost an infinity if you wanted it to. 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. Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. He is one of the world's leading cardio thoracic surgeons. . Benita Alexander-Noel was born on April 21, 1966 in Australia. I had tried, at one point I pushed him away, and we didn't see each other for about three months. Macchiarini proposed to Alexander on Christmas Day in 2013. Paolo Macchiarini (born 22 August 1958): 2 is a Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon and former regenerative medicine researcher who became known for research fraud and manipulative behavior. "That's when he told me that there was this kind of clandestine network [of doctors] who are on call, basically, for these people.'". 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. 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. ", Heartbroken, Alexander continued to discover more of Macchiarini's lies in the ensuing months. [00:20:06] Benita: We had kind of quietly gotten engaged, but we weren't telling anybody um, because I mean the complicated thing about this is that there's a sort of unwritten rule in journalism that everybody understands, that, you know, there's, there is a line you just don't cross a kind of sacred line where you don't, you can empathize with a story subject, you can sympathize, but you don't become personally involved with a story subject for, for the reason, obviously, that your objectivity could be compromised, right. I was so career-driven, and so career-oriented, but I was madly in love. And we finally decided that we would live in Barcelona. It does so much unnecessary damage. [00:35:21] Bob: It does sound like the kind, I mean we were talking about what, 10 gowns? But Macchiarini showered her in flowers and jewelry. He never did that with me, but I, I've, I have seen him really being quite, quite unpleasant with um, PhDs and people who were sort of subordinate. 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. 5 Journalist Benita Alexander (right) has. [00:31:09] Matthew Christopher: Um, a couture wedding gown designer is someone that actually design gowns from beginning to end, whether that's draping, whether that's sketching; couture means it's handmade. Some even believed he'd win a Nobel Prize one day, according to author Stuart Ritchie. Both have covered Macchiarini in their work. I also believe that exposing what happened, and exposing him, might keep him from hurting others. But at this point, they're just questions. If I had a checklist, he, he was everything I would want in a partner, everything you would want in a man. 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