Benita Alexander thought she was living a real-life fairytale when she met Dr Paolo Macchiarini – the world’s first doctor to perform a synthetic organ transplant. But then the dark truth unravelled
Charismatic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini gained international fame as the world’s first doctor to perform a synthetic organ transplant.
When not in the operating room, he whisked his girlfriend, Benita Alexander off on exotic vacations and promised her a lavish Italian wedding officiated by the Pope himself. But just months before their dream wedding, Alexander learned her fiancé was not the man she thought he was.
As Macchiarini’s surgical achievements came under scrutiny, Alexander discovered the famed Italian had won her heart with lies – and was secretly married to another woman.
Alexander first met Macchiarini in February 2013 while working as a producer for NBC. She was researching a two-hour special titled A Leap of Faith about the “super-surgeon”.
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In 2011, Paolo created the world’s first artificial windpipe using a plastic trachea scaffold infused with a patient’s own stem cells, aiming to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ.
Collaborating with Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, Macchiarini quickly rose to prominence. However, multiple patients died following the procedures, and others suffered serious complications, according to a report by biomedical researcher Leonid Schneider. These surgeries were carried out across Sweden, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United States.
As part of her job as a producer, Alexander arranged to meet Macchiarini at Boston’s Mandarin Oriental hotel to discuss his work transplanting synthetic organs. At the time, he was working to implant a synthetic trachea into a two-year-old child, Hannah Warren.
“I’m not a believer in love at first sight. But the second our eyes locked, that’s what it felt like,” Alexander later told The New York Post.
Though their first meeting sparked romantic feelings, Alexander tried to keep their relationship professional at first. She was coping with her ex-husband’s battle with an aggressive brain cancer, and Macchiarini was a steady support.
“He was an amazing friend to me during that time, and a solid, reliable pillar of strength,” she told Vanity Fair. “He spent hours listening to me talk about it all and offering gentle advice.”
By June 2013, the line between friendship and romance blurred. Alexander recalled an “incredibly romantic weekend” in Venice, followed by a trip to Stockholm two weeks later.
After spending two months apart, Macchiarini flew to New York in September 2013 to be with Alexander during her surgery for uterine fibroids. Their relationship progressed, and on Christmas Day 2013, Paolo proposed. Alexander happily accepted.
Shortly after, Paolo told her he had to leave for an “emergency V.I.P. surgery” and claimed he was part of a secret circle of elite doctors treating figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Emperor Akihito of Japan, and President Obama, according to Vanity Fair.
Then, throughout 2014, Macchiarini teased extravagant nuptials, including a Catholic ceremony officiated by Pope Francis at the Vatican’s summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, a four-day celebration, and performances by Andrea Bocelli and John Legend.
Alexander welcomed Macchiarini’s offer to surprise her with an Italian wedding. “All I had to do was buy the dress,” she said. The woman had four dresses made and wedding invitations printed for high-profile names including Vladimir Putin and the Obamas.
But in May 2015, the truth unravelled. Just as Alexander planned to move to Europe and quit NBC, she received an email from a friend titled “The Pope.” It linked to an article revealing Pope Francis would be in South America on their supposed wedding day.
“I demanded an explanation from Paolo,” Alexander told The Post. He claimed Vatican politics had interfered with the plans. But when she contacted the Italian castle where the wedding was allegedly booked, “nobody there knew Paolo’s name.”
She cancelled the wedding and hired a private investigator, who revealed Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 29 years — and living in Barcelona with another mistress and their two children.
“I just didn’t want to put two and two together,” Alexander said. “I didn’t want Paolo to not be the man I believed him to be. I didn’t want the fairy tale to end.”
The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis never knew Macchiarini or promised to officiate the wedding. Bocelli’s wife also denied his involvement.
On what would have been their wedding weekend, Alexander, disguised in a blonde wig, and two friends confronted Macchiarini at his Barcelona home. A woman with two children emerged, confirming his deception.
“He was like an embarrassed schoolboy who had been caught,” friend Leigh McKenzie told Vanity Fair.
Alexander watched silently from the car, marking the definitive end of their relationship. In 2018, she executive produced the documentary He Lied About Everything, chronicling the ill-fated romance.
Meanwhile, a Swedish court found Macchiarini acted with criminal intent in his treatment of three patients who received trachea transplants while he was working at the Karolinska Institute.
All three patients died after suffering complications from the procedure. The court ruled that Macchiarini knew the surgeries were unlikely to succeed but disregarded the risks to the patients.
Macchiarini bypassed essential safety protocols: he conducted no animal testing, clinical trials, or safety reviews before implanting the synthetic tracheas into human patients. His team also allegedly failed to obtain government approvals for the artificial windpipes, chemicals, and stem cells used, and did not seek ethical clearance from Stockholm’s review board.
One surviving patient, Yesim Cetir, reportedly spent three years in intensive care at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent nearly 200 surgeries.
Investigations by both the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital later revealed that complications and patient deaths may have been intentionally concealed. Macchiarini also faced accusations of scientific misconduct from several colleagues.
Macchiarini was sentenced in 2023 to two and a half years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated assault against patients he treated.
Today, Alexander continues producing and leads Berraca Productions, a company dedicated to empowering women who have survived fraud.
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