The latter refers to his misconduct that led to the deaths of several patients. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. [00:02:54] Bob: Benita focused on emotional stories, many involving children in tragic circumstances. And we got involved and started doing the story, and it got very intense. He worked at the place that awards the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden. [00:25:22] Bob: And while Paolo loves to talk about his work, he isn't always charming. 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. [00:40:30] Benita: Paolo lived in Barcelona, and so we had talked about what were we going to do after the wedding. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Every time he took me on a trip, he just delighted in these, these big, over the top, elaborate surprises. Learn how to subscribe to AARP Podcasts on any device. The Karolinska Institute, which had renewed Macchiarini's contract in November 2015, launched another investigation into Macchiarini and reversed its previous conclusions -- Macchiarini was indeed guilty of scientific misconduct, the Institute determined. I was like why, why are you videotaping me again. [00:18:02] Benita: Oh, there was so many. [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. And so I did, you know, I sat back, and even when I was tempted to ask questions, I didn't. Soon afterward, he took her on an "over the top" romantic trip to Italy, where they ate extravagant meals, went shopping and island hopped on a private boat, she said. [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. 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 incredibly generous with them as well. 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. I'm, you know, I like, I like information. And I was, I was really moved by that. "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. But there was something, yeah, something happened between us the, the moment we met. 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. Eventually, she died. Since her romance with Paolo imploded in 2015, the brunette beauty has continued working on documentaries and docuseries'. [00:01:28] Benita: I grew up in Australia, and I had an uncle, my mother's brother, who worked for Radio Free Europe. Benita Alexander attended Wayne State University, where she studied journalism. A successful TV journalist, the single mother-of-one was interviewing him for a report on cutting-edge medicine. NBC News is pulling "A Leap of Faith" Meredith Vieira's documentary on controversial . [00:23:07] Bob: The first time you met him was where? [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. Documentary producer Benita Alexander thought it was love when her job introduced her to internationally renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. And I just thought, okay, you've got some stupid little schoolgirl crush on this doctor, which is absurd. I mean my, I mean my jaw was on the floor. I was blissfully happy. Macchiarini proposed to Alexander on Christmas Day in 2013. I think he needs to be behind bars. 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. [00:35:41] Matthew Christopher: Yeah, and we definitely um, we made sure that through this process, we made sure we took care of her, you know what I mean. See production, box office & company info, Fatal Experiments: The Downfall of a Supersurgeon. She's a star producer for NBC News in New York, working alongside Meredith Viera creating primetime TV specials. 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 . 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. It was eight months later when they became properly engaged after Macchiarini presented her with a $100K ring. Some even believed he'd win a Nobel Prize one day, according to author Stuart Ritchie. He soon proposed, only for her to realize her fianc was a complete liar around a year later. 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. You can also manage your communication preferences by updating your account at anytime. 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. Hundreds of Benita Alexander's friends and family had already bought their plane tickets to Italy to attend her extravagant wedding that was supposed to be officiated by the pope when it all came crashing down in a flurry of her fianc's deception. I loved my work at NBC. And as they ride the motorcycle away from the river, the magic carpet ride takes off. In response to Gerdin's report, Macchiarini denied all the findings. And it was so fun to work with, with all of them, you know, anybody that, and they have private appointments that wanted to come in. You know this man adores you. He was speaking at a conference in Boston, and we went there to interview him, sort of ahead of Hannah coming to the US, about his work and about Hannah. 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. 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 then John Legend was supposed to be playing piano in the church. It does so much unnecessary damage. 'People Magazine Investigates' : Tracking Down the Man Who Allegedly Killed Mom of Two Joy Hibbs in 1991, Arrest Made in Beloved Mother's Cold Case Murder and Prosecutor Credits 'People Magazine Investigates', 'Hiding in Plain Sight': All About Jimmy Savile, Disgraced Royal Confidante Featured in Netflix Doc, 'People Magazine Investigates' : Inside Decades-Old Disappearances of 5 People Along the Snake River. Benita Alexander has been married twice. Best Known For For her appearance in ID Now (2017), Dateline NBC (1992) and Inside the Obama White House (2009). "The first thing we did was inform our boss, and then we also informed Paolo Macchiarini's bosses at the university," Corbascio said. Her daughter has thus been the only constant in her life. 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. 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. I was so career-driven, and so career-oriented, but I was madly in love. Benita was pursuing a big story when the ill-fated lovers met in 2013. The providers terms, conditions and policies apply. He seemed that way in his work as well, but here he is talking to me and spending all this time listening to me and seemed very vested in this little girl that he had never met. A contact she had to the Clintons told her they'd never heard of Macchiarini. 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." Her multiple awards include: Edward R. Murrow, 2 Emmys, 7 Emmy nominations, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia, NABJ and Sigma Delta Chi. [00:32:14] Matthew Christopher: She actually came to my private showroom which was really cool, and um, I had my whole staff there, and we had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and I was like, what is going on here? 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. [00:34:59] Bob: When you went to her house, was Paolo there? "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.". He speaks 5 or 6 languages, and he works all over the world, and you know, dresses very beautifully. Um, (laugh) I was uh, in my 40s. [00:01:59] Benita: I had worked my way up from working in, from tiny little newspapers in Detroit, Michigan, which is where I went to college and where I'd, my family had moved after Australia. 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