"I talked to my editors and we started thinking, 'Well, let's just keep pulling on this thread. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next. He wrote love notes in lipstick on her mirror and left roses on the bed in the shape of hearts. 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. But then I, and this was October of 2014, and I went and googled, the first thing I did was I went to my desk and googled, literally googled, Does the Pope marry people? And what popped up was an article from a month earlier where the Pope had just married 20 couples in the Vatican. I said, I just, I can't do this. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Benita was pursuing a big story when the ill-fated lovers met in 2013. Copyright 2023 ABC News Internet Ventures. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Macchiarini denied the accusations coming from his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute to Alexander, and she doubled down on supporting Macchiarini. I think he was looking for challenges, and uh, things that makes life much, much more exciting. And it's Paolo who helps Benita figure out the best way to say goodbye. The happy couple start planning their wedding in earnest, and well, we already know Paolo likes a challenge. 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. [00:21:22] Benita: Tragically, Hannah passed away, which was, um, just devastating. receive communications related to AARP volunteering. I mean it got to the point where he loved to surprise me, everywhere we went. Moreover, the Italian investigator found records showing that despite planning a wedding with Alexander for so long, Macchiarini was still legally married. In 2015, Alexander sent emails to the Karolinska Institute expressing concerns about the acclaimed surgeon. [00:18:02] Benita: Oh, there was so many. As a producer, for me that was next to impossible. Benita's story is also told on BBCs Outlook" podcast. Her colleague had sent an article that said the pope would not be in Rome, or even Italy, on the day of their wedding. In the months leading up to the airing of A Leap of Faith, in June 2014, Macchiarini and Alexander went on trips to the Bahamas, Turkey, Mexico, Greece, and Italy. [00:31:00] Bob: One of those nondisclosure agreements is signed by Matthew Christopher. 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. His work, if controversial, is also groundbreaking. Oxygen.com interviews filmmaker and reporter Benita Alexander, an executive producer of the 90-minute documentary "Seduced by Evil," about con man Derek Alldred. And I just thought, okay, you've got some stupid little schoolgirl crush on this doctor, which is absurd. Yeah. 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. Uh, I think he actually appreciated being challenged to an extent. Benita is still wearing the second ring throughout the documentary! [00:39:38] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, I mean we were going through fittings, we were going through the process of um getting things together. Macchiarini and Benita quickly started planning an extravagant wedding, she said. Cetir died waiting for the lung transplant she desperately needed. It was at this point that Benita said she started to feel that something was not right. [00:34:35] Bob: The first step is working with Benita on ideas for the wedding dress. And Paolo never talks about his personal life. Death podcast. Macchiarini had reported that after his first patient underwent the procedure, a healthy trachea was beginning to develop, Lindquist said. Benita Alexander-Noel was born on April 21, 1966 in Australia. And that presence was really something, it was really something. 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. 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. Lindquist had begun his own investigation into the claims brought forth by Macchiarini's colleagues. 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. She was even more stunned when she began to realize that so much of what Macchiarini had told her about his personal and professional life was a lie. Which sounds a bit absurd, however, he is an Italian surgeon. Then, just before New Year's Eve, he left the U.S., telling Alexander that he had a "really important surgery" to perform. Benita has since spoken up about her experiences in the media, given public speeches, and written detailed articles in renowned publications to bring awareness to the concept of love con. 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 was angry as hell. ", "As devastated as I was and as much as I wanted to crawl under the covers and hide and stay there, I knew I couldn't fall apart," she said. Then, two years later, her father, whod married a neighbor, asked her to pack up her bags and leave for good. 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. The doctors also raised the issue that Macchiarini had reported on a patient in a way that suggested the patient was still alive, even though they had died before the paper was published. Its so damaging. "We had to clear her throat basically every four to six hours, sort of 24 hours, seven days a week," said Oscar Simonson, a cardiothoracic surgeon who worked at the Karolinska Institute and its affiliated hospital at the time. [00:04:22] Bob: And you had a happy ending. 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. And so does anyone who has anything to do with the wedding. Hosted by Benita Alexander. And the stem cells were supposed to magically integrate, and he was fixing people. [00:31:07] Bob: But what is a couture wedding gown designer? "I wanted to get all the information that I could before I really confronted him.". [00:09:12] Bob: And so, Benita travels to Boston to meet the miracle worker for herself. I'm going to have to do the exact number but [00:12:07] Bob: And you hadn't felt that way ever, or at least not for 30 years, something like that. I was so conflicted about it. "It was the weirdest thing," Alexander said. "The first thing we did was inform our boss, and then we also informed Paolo Macchiarini's bosses at the university," Corbascio said. And he was not doing well, and I was really struggling with the fact that I was about to become a single mother. He proposed to Alexander on Christmas in 2013 and she said yes. How to, what do we do now? In the meantime, please feel free [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 I said, "Well how's that going to work, because we're both divorcees," or so I thought, and I'm not Catholic. [00:00:03] He was incredibly generous, you know, and so romantic and just so wonderful. Macchiarini took Alexander to several romantic getaways in Europe. "He [the Pope] wanted to use us as the poster couple for the Catholic church, to prove people who are divorced can get married in the Catholic church.". I don't want you to do anything except find your dresses and just, all you have to do is show up and look beautiful. She had spent her entire little life in the hospital, never left the hospital because she had a tube down her throat just to live. He soon proposed, only for her to realize her fianc was a complete liar around a year later. Thats what I have the power to do now. ", Jupiter and Venus appear to 'kiss' in the sky, What is graupel? [00:11:55] Bob: And how old were you then? [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. 5. Her first marriage was to fellow journalist John Noel. Benita Alexander-Jeune started her career as a journalist for a few minor television stations. You know, part of it is you meet so many different people that you would never meet otherwise, but when you can tell a story that actually makes a difference in someone's life, that, to me, that's one of the most beautiful things about journalism. Um, it hit all of us very, very hard. After Cetir's surgery, doctors say she had to undergo an additional 191 surgeries for other complications. She was floored when he told her John Legend would sing at their wedding and Pope Francis would officiate. [00:23:44] Bo Lindquist: Paolo was very well-dressed and very careful with his looks. I don't know if I was nervous. The documentary includes never-before-seen footage and photos and shows Alexanders search for the truth after such a shocking betrayal of the heart. I had tried, at one point I pushed him away, and we didn't see each other for about three months. Alexander was working on a documentary about Macchiarini's success in the medical field. None of the promises Alexander said her fianc Paolo Macchiarini had made for their wedding day would come true. Benita Alexander thought she had found her modern day Prince Charming. 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. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. The couple shares a daughter named Jessina, born in 2003. [00:06:46] Benita: And he was, as I said, called the super surgeon, and he was the pioneer in this field. 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. People could be dying because of this man, and therefore, I couldn't stay silent, I couldn't crawl under the covers. 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