- Today's video is brought
to you by Brooklinen. Click the link in the description to shop Brooklinen's Black Friday sale. (mysterious music) (chimes twinkling) Hello, everyone, and
welcome back to my channel. I am so happy to have you here today. If you are new, welcome. Don't mind Lily. I don't know why she is
sucking on my blanket today. Very nice. Today's story is absolutely wild. And when I first heard about this, I knew I had to make a
video on it eventually because it just blew my mind. You guys know I'm very
interested in fraudsters, lawsuits, people who lie. I think it's really fascinating, especially people who make
elaborate lies over time. So, today I'm gonna be telling
you the story of two people who fell madly in love and had
the kind of fairytale romance that you see in the movies. But as you can imagine,
there's some twists, so let's just get right into this one. So, first of all, I'm gonna be telling you about Paolo Macchiarini. So, Paolo was born on August 22nd, 1958, in what I believe is
pronounced Basel, Switzerland. Eh, I could be really wrong. But anyway, he was born
to an Italian family and grew up in that area for
the first part of his life. Friends and colleagues described Paolo as a very intelligent,
charming, and handsome guy. Paolo received his medical degree from the University of
Pisa in Italy in 1986 and his master's of surgery by 1991. In 1989, he took a course on
statistics in clinical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1990 to 1992 and he was
also an assistant professor at the University of Pisa. Lastly, Paolo earned his master's in organ and tissue
transplantations in 1994. And by 1997, he received
his doctorate for the same, all at the University of Franche-Comte. Paolo was also employed by the very prestigious
Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. And around the time that
all of this happened, he was known as a world-renowned surgeon. He was a big deal. Paolo had an extensive
and impressive education and had all the power
to make a famed surgeon, which he ultimately became. Now, the other person we're
gonna be talking about for the most part today is
someone named Benita Alexander. Benita was born on April 21st, 1966, in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and she had been through a lot in life. When she was younger, her mother left her and it was devastating for her. She left her whole family and it was like two weeks
before Benita's birthday. And two years later when
she got a little older, her father kinda kicked her
out, told her she had to go. But even though her
childhood was troubling, that did not stop her from
achieving a lot in her life. In fact, she graduated magna cum laude from Wayne State University
with a degree in journalism, which was always a passion of hers. Benita married her first
husband, John Noel, and the two of them had a baby
girl in 2006 named Jessina. However, their marriage did not work out and it was a pretty rocky divorce and took a real toll on
Benita and her daughter. They officially split in 2009, and her and her daughter at the time were living in New York City together. Benita's friends describe her as an incredibly loyal,
caring, good person who also had an incredible
work ethic and drive to her. She was gorgeous. She was always kinda done up. She always looked glamorous
and had beautiful dark hair and piercing blue eyes. But friends would say that
despite how beautiful she was, she had a genuine
down-to-earth heart of gold and that they never felt like she thought she was
better than anyone else. - You don't always expect
someone to look like that to be so warm and loving and giving. - She just is the most
loyal, nonjudgmental person you probably will ever meet. - She started out her career in journalism just doing local reporting
and local broadcast, and eventually that
blossomed into much more. Eventually, she became an award-winning documentary TV producer and investigative journalist for NBC News. So, her career totally took off and she was very happy about that, and she was self-admittedly
a bit of a workaholic. - She was at the top of her game. - The two that she has questions about, just get back to me about those. - This girl works a zillion
hours and never tires and is so committed to her work. - However, she says that
she always made sure with how much he worked that she made time for the people in her
life that mattered most: her close friends, her family, and most importantly her daughter. So, in 2013, Benita
started working on a story about a "superstar surgeon" who was changing the medical world when it comes to trachea transplants. He really seemed to be a
trailblazer in that world and was pioneering all types
of new techniques and ideas. In fact, he developed
a brand new technique to use a synthetic trachea
made out of plastic, and this is crazy. But for the procedure, they would actually wrap
it in a person's stem cells in order to recreate a
fully functioning organ. - [Narrator] The synthetic
trachea was made of plastic, the same kinda plastic
used to make water bottles, and the tube was first coated
with the patient's stem cells. And once implanted, the
patient's own stem cells would generate new tissue
and a functioning trachea. - So, this was seemingly a
really revolutionary technique that could change lives
all over the world. - People were thinking
that with his technique, you could do synthetic
hearts, synthetic livers, synthetic esophagi, even
synthetic parts of the brain. - So, in spring of 2013, Benita
began covering the story. It was a full NBC story on Paulo, "The Super Surgeon," as they called it. And at the time, he was
set to operate in Illinois on a Korean toddler named Hannah Warren, who was born without a trachea. Hannah would be the youngest person alive to receive an artificial trachea, making this surgery historical and a major component
of Benita's documentary. So, Paolo flies in to
America for the surgery and he and Benita meet up a day before they're starting
to record this documentary. And Benita said it was
just, "The weirdest thing." - He comes around the
corner, he looks right at me. And in that second, something happened. 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?" I'm saying to myself, "Okay, whatever this is,
don't think about it." - But even though she
felt this instant spark and attraction to Paolo, she
knew that she had to keep it strictly business professional because they were working
together on this documentary and it could compromise
the integrity of the piece. And not just that, at this time, her personal life was really not stable. She was going through a lot and she really didn't
need a new relationship or a new love interest anyway, so she kinda just shut down these feelings because something really tragic was going on in her and
her daughter's life. Benita's ex-husband of
12 years by this time was diagnosed with glioblastoma, and this was really devastating news because it's a terrible type
of cancer and it is terminal. - It was just really difficult. I knew I was gonna have
to tell my daughter that her dad was dying. I couldn't even fathom how to do it. She was only nine. - She's trying to hold
it together for her job. She's trying to hold it
together for her daughter. She's trying to hold it
together for everybody and everything else except herself. - Paolo ended up being kind
of an emotional support for Benita during this time. The two of them would
start going out to dinner to talk about the piece
they were working on, but he would also give her medical advice and try to offer some comfort during this very difficult time. - He gave me really
sage, solid, kind advice. I have amazing friends,
but I was in Illinois. They weren't there, and I
needed someone to lean on. - He was really comforting
and really helpful during that period at
a really critical time. - Benita also learned during these dinners that Paolo was separated from his ex-wife, but the divorce had not gone through yet, so he was technically still married. Unfortunately, by the
time Benita's ex-husband went into hospice, he fell
into a coma and it became clear that she wasn't gonna be
able to say goodbye to him. But Paolo actually gave her
a lot of advice about healing and kind of came up with other ways that she could say goodbye
without actually saying goodbye and give herself some kinda closure and really heal from the whole thing. And she thought it was a really good idea and ended up asking Paolo for his help. So, Paolo took Benita out on
the back of his motorcycle and the two of them went up to a lake just to throw John's favorite flowers in. And Benita said this was the day, the real start of their whirlwind romance that was yet to come. - While I did what I had
to, and he hugged me. He could see the pain in my
face and I didn't resist. And it wasn't just a quick hug. There was something really
sort of intense about it. I remember thinking, "Ah,
I'm falling for this guy." That was the moment I knew. That day marked the beginning
of our romantic involvement. - Their romantic relationship hit the ground running. (laughing) And even though Benita felt
a little weird about all this because she had a lot of concerns that this was compromising
the integrity of the work she was currently doing
on this documentary, plus the fact that he was
technically still married was a concern for her as well. - [Narrator] Paolo explained
that he had been separated for years, but the divorce
still wasn't legal. - But she decided to
kinda put all that aside and explore the romance a bit. So, the two of them jetted off on a romantic trip to Venice, Italy. And during this whole trip, Paolo absolutely showered
Benita with tons of flowers, wine, food, the best gifts. She said that he would spend money like you wouldn't believe. And the trip to Venice would
only be the first of many. The two ended up traveling
all over the world together, places like London,
Mexico, Russia, Greece, Sweden, Puerto Rico,
and The Bahamas twice. - [Paolo] We are here
at the Athens airport. Our cave our love
(Benita laughing) with so many roses, petals on the floor. And the most beautiful woman. - I love you. I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you. - And Benita said that even
though she really appreciate all of the money that was
being spent on gifts for her and trips for her and for
them to do all these things, she really said what was most
endearing to her about Paolo was that he would express
his love in many other ways, things like writing her love notes on her mirror with lipstick or sending her videos just
professing his love for her and how wonderful he thought she was. - I just wanted to send you a
few loving good morning words and a lot of kisses to my princess. I cannot stop thinking about you and- Especially proud that you are mine. I love you. So very much.
(Paolo smooching) - And even though her daughter, Jessina, had just lost her father
and was reeling from that, obviously, she decided to
introduce her daughter to Paolo. And she said she did a
lotta thinking about this, but she really wanted to make sure that the person she
introduced her daughter to was possibly the one, and she felt like she really
had a future with Paolo. And Paolo really won Jessina over as well. Benita said he treated her like a princess and it was like living a fairytale. - [Paolo] These two beautiful girls. - Benita said at that point they were just crazy about each other. Their love was super strong,
their connection was amazing, and she really felt like
she had a future with Paolo. So, Paolo proposed to
Benita on Christmas of 2013. There's actually a video clip of it. And he very casually just
hands her the ring box as if it's some random gift. And when she opened it
up, she saw a diamond ring and figured it was probably
an engagement ring, so she kinda gave him a look and he nodded that, yes, yes it was. And Paolo said that this ring actually cost him over a $100,000, so Benita was just floored. I mean, she was just being
constantly showered by this guy with gifts and praise and it was like something out of a movie. Paolo was the type of guy that was constantly looking
for ways to impress Benita, to really wow her, and just seemed like such a
well-rounded catch of a man. One of the things that Paolo didn't do, although he spoke seven languages and wined and dined
her all over the world, he was very well-rounded on the outside, but one of the things that she
wished he could do was dance. Dancing was a big part of her life and she'd always want
to salsa dance with him. So, one time when they were in Mexico, they were at a restaurant and he randomly just grabbed her hand and asked her to dance. And she was all confused 'cause
he didn't know how to dance, but it turns out the dude actually went and took private salsa lessons and surprised her on the dance floor by knowing how to do the salsa and wowed everyone at this bar. Really, like a movie. Early on into their engagement, he ends up buying a
piano for her apartment and he tells her that he
used to play piano as a kid, but he lost the skill, like
a lot of us. (laughing) I tried piano as a kid, wasn't very good. Would have no idea how to start if I were to sit down at a piano now. But Paolo just purchased
this piano and said, "I'm gonna reteach myself "and I wanna play a song
for you at our wedding." And suddenly, he was really good. She was just wowed by
this guy who's so smart and so intellectual and
still learning new things and so willing to impress her by putting in that extra hard work. He just seemed like the dream guy. And even though the two
of them were engaged now and talking about their wedding plans, it wasn't bringing Paolo to the States as much as Benita would've wanted. He was still gone a lot for work. But because he was a
world-renowned surgeon, it made sense to Benita that he would continue that busy life and would always be
traveling across the world to perform these groundbreaking surgeries or give speeches to other dignitaries. So, he was gone a lot, but
that didn't really bother her. All of the good things about him kinda outweighed the difficulties that the two of them faced. And she figured over time they would find a way to
make everything work better. So, when it came to their wedding, Paolo decided he wanted
to plan the whole thing, really just have Benita show up and go through the process
of picking her dresses and just focus on herself and
be able to just enjoy the day. And Paolo decided that the
two of them should marry in one of the most romantic
places in the world, Italy, but there were some things
that they had to sort out before they went forward
with wedding plans. One of those important things
that they needed to figure out was Paolo was still married. He technically was still
married to his ex-wife, the divorce hadn't gone through, so they needed that to
move through the process. And then they would need to think about what their family life would
look like, this new family. How are they going to include her daughter and really make everyone feel comfortable? And the biggest thing with that was figuring out where
they were gonna live and how they were gonna
balance their two busy careers. But a major issue in their relationship that just continued to be a problem was how often Paolo was gone. And during these times, he normally wouldn't
communicate with Benita much. Sometimes it would be just random too. He would be visiting her and then suddenly have to travel somewhere for an emergency surgery. But Paolo made it clear that his clients were kind of high-powered individuals, so Benita was kind of understanding of these last-minute trips. He held positions in
London, Russia, and Sweden, so Benita would often not know
exactly where he was going for days or sometimes weeks at a time. And like I said, much of
the time that he was gone, he became unreachable by phone because he said he was
busy with surgeries. But by the time that they started to actually plan out the wedding, Paolo was even more adamant that he really plan it and
control the whole thing and that Benita just show up. He said that he would
handle all the details and he wanted her to just not stress and enjoy the process of getting married. But Paolo was insistent on
having a Catholic wedding, even though Benita
herself was not Catholic. She didn't really care much. I mean, she said she
would marry him wherever, but she thought that it would
be pretty much impossible for them to find a Catholic
church that would marry them because they were both divorcees. This is not allowed in the
Catholic Church most of the time. But Paolo told her,
"Don't worry about that. "I've got some special contacts in Rome "and I can get it figured out." - Aside from the fact
that I'm not Catholic, the Catholic Church is not
gonna marry two divorcees. Maybe we should ditch this
whole Catholic wedding thing. "No, no, I'm gonna go talk
to my contacts in Rome." - And it turns out that this
contact was the Vatican itself. So, Paolo actually flew to Rome for a meeting regarding
the couple's wedding with the Vatican and called
Benita immediately after to tell her that the pope
was gonna be marrying them. That's right, the pope, the actual pope, was gonna do their wedding,
according to Paolo. And Benita thought this
was bullshit right away and he told her, "You're
never gonna believe me, "but I actually did meet with the pope "and he wants to marry us." And at first she just hung up
on him because she was like, "What the hell are you talking about?" - He finally calls me and he says, "They took me in to meet Francis." Then he said, "And he
said he can help us." And then he said, "But," and there's this long
silence on the phone. I said, "But what?" He said, "He offered to marry us himself." And I just said, "Oh, (beep), "the pope doesn't marry people." "No, I'm serious. "He wants to marry us
because we're both divorcees. "He thinks we're the perfect poster couple "to push forward his
forward-thinking agenda "to change the Catholic Church." And I got so mad. I said, "I'm gonna talk to
you later," and I hung up. She had never heard of the pope
just marrying random people and felt like he probably had
more important things to do. But Paolo ended up convincing Benita that the pope wanted to marry them because they were both divorcees. And after she googled it, Benita actually realized that the pope had married a handful of other couples who had already been living
together at the time. And at that moment, she realized that maybe it was possible that this really could happen for them. So, then that disbelief
turned into excitement and she couldn't believe that they were gonna
be married by the pope. Her friends and family,
when she told them, were obviously also in disbelief and didn't quite believe it at first. (woman laughing) - [Woman] Oh my god! - No, no, no, I'm not joking. We're getting married by the pope. (woman laughing) From that moment on, I felt
like my head was spinning and it didn't stop spinning. - But once Benita really
got used to the idea of the pope marrying them, she realized what a big deal
this wedding was gonna be. And according to Paolo, the pope himself would not be the only famous
person at their wedding. He also claimed that the
Beckhams, the Clintons, the Obamas would all be there because they were friends of Paolo's. And it didn't stop there. He also told Benita that
John Legend, Elton John, and Andrea Bocelli would also be there and performing at their wedding as well. All three of 'em, damn. So, with such a famed guest list, Benita decides that it would be best for her family members to sign an NDA. And Paulo said that this wedding would actually be a four-day affair held in Castel Gandolfo, which is a castle about 40
minutes outside of Rome. So, Benita got to meet with
a wedding planning team and there's actually
footage of them all meeting and her telling them that the pope was gonna be marrying them. And they were all just blown away, realizing what a huge
project this was going to be and how serious it was. - Yes, we're getting married by the pope. - Oh, my god. (laughing) - And I couldn't believe it. I was like, (laughing) "Oh my god." I couldn't believe it. I literally sat there;
I think I was in shock. - Oh my gosh, start designing. (laughing) - They started working on multiple dresses because this was gonna be over four days. They wanted to do an outfit
change during the final dance, like she would be wearing
this kind of big poofy dress and then during their first
dance he would rip off the dress and they could like show
off their salsa moves; rip it off with something
underneath it, of course. And Benita was in fairytale land. I mean, all her friends
were really excited. Everyone just could not believe what this wedding was being described as, what they were gonna be going to. Her friends and family were
very excited to be going, but also a little nervous
about the whole thing, trying to figure out what
they're supposed to wear to an event like this. It started to feel like it
was a bit of a royal wedding. All these famous people
were gonna be there, the pope was gonna be there. What should their dresses look like? What should Benita's dresses look like? And that's really where her focus lied because Paolo was supposedly
doing everything else for the wedding. But before the wedding even happened, things started getting rocky. In 2014, Benita planned a
trip for the two of them to visit California to celebrate
Thanksgiving as a family. And around this time, Paulo
started telling Benita that he was worried about people
who he called his enemies. He was under extreme
stress according to him because of people who were
against him and his work. And not long after
hearing about his enemies, Benita wakes up to a news article stating that colleagues of Paolo's at the Karolinska Institutet were accusing him of
scientific misconduct. These doctors who had
worked alongside Paolo were particularly concerned
with his new procedure involving trachea transplants. Six of the medical journals where Paolo had been
publishing his research were fraught with lies and falsifications, according to these colleagues. - We went through six of
Paolo Macchiarini's articles. We could show that there
was lies and falsifications in the articles he'd published. - And the news started to spread. A lotta people were hearing about it and Paolo was very stressed
out during this time. But whenever Benita would ask
him about these allegations, he would maintain his innocence, say that none of it was true. And she wanted to believe
him, wanted to support him. He also said that this
is kind of criticism that comes with anyone who's
developing a new procedure and that they always expect complications. But minor failures and complications really doesn't cover the situations that were unfolding with his patients. Hannah Warren, the Korean
toddler who Paolo operated on just months before, had passed away before she even made
it outta the hospital. It was devastating to her family and so many of the people
that worked with her, and Benita was devastated too. This was a story that she was covering. She had gotten to know this little girl and couldn't believe
that this had happened. Meanwhile, all of the stories about Paolo's alleged
scientific misconduct continued to make headlines. So, Benita jumped in to help
him out as best she could. Her sister-in-law remembered
the entire dining room just being covered in paperwork. She was going through tons of files, going into full PR mode, trying to save her husband's
career and reputation. Shortly after the news about Paolo broke, the two of them went back to Italy for a nice weekend getaway. And during this brief vacation,
Benita started begging Paolo to take her to where they
were gonna be married. She wanted to see it for herself. - He was really resistant. It was just one excuse after the other, and I couldn't understand
what the resistance was. I'm like, "Please, I just,
I wanna see this place." - But eventually he caved and he ended up taking
her to Castel Gandolfo, where he showed her the grand entrance that she would walk in and the lake where there
would be a huge fireworks show and the city hall where he
said their wedding paperwork was already inside and
waiting for them to sign. But during the entire trip, Benita noticed that Paolo seemed annoyed. Something was off, he seemed not himself. When she kinda pressed him about it, wondering why he seemed to
be in sort of a bad mood, he said that he was fine. He was just stressed out
about all of these allegations and lies being spread about him. So, not long after that trip, Paolo actually asked
Benita and her daughter to go ahead and make
the move to Barcelona. And he told her that they would live in a beautiful home together
and really start their lives. - [Paolo] This is the place
where you and I will live for the rest of our life. I love you. - He convinced Benita to
quit her job and she did, which was a big move
for her and scary to do, but she had trust in him. They also pulled Jessina
out of her private school and made the plans to move to Barcelona. But when it came down to it, there were three to
four separate instances when they were supposed to leave, but Paolo would be called
into emergency surgery and have to fly out somewhere suddenly. And again, she was frustrated by this, she was a little annoyed, but she understood that his
career was incredibly important. Especially with her quitting her job, he was now gonna be the sole
breadwinner for their family, so she just tried to be cool about it all. So, about eight weeks
before the two of them are supposed to have this grand wedding with all these celebrities there in Rome, married by the pope, Benita
is at a spa with her friends, just having a chill spa day. She's just sitting there, and then suddenly she gets an email. And she starts reading this and everything falls
apart in a few seconds. - I see this email and
it's from a colleague and it says, "We need to talk." And it has a link to an article
that shows that the pope is not going to be in Rome on July 11th, he's going to be in South America. - The wedding was supposed
to be July 11th, 2015, and the pope would not be there, so obviously this immediately raised a bunch of red flags for her. And this article made it really clear that the pope had also planned
this trip a long time ago. Benita, of course, felt sick
as soon as she read this. I mean, her whole world
kinda came crashing down in an instant. She was absolutely furious
and called Paolo immediately and demanded answers, asked him, "What the hell is going on?" But his manipulation
and lies only continued. He made up quite an interesting story. He said that Pope Benedict was trying to undermine Pope Francis because of his progressive agenda, that he was trying to stop him from being able to be
involved in their wedding. According to him, the pope had made some more kind of radical
ideas for the wedding day, including Paolo being
able to get communion even though he was divorced,
which is typically not allowed. He also told her that the
pope wanted to have anyone who was gay at the wedding be
able to get communion as well and that this was going to be
a real statement to everyone about the direction he wanted
to push Catholicism in. She thought this seemed
a bit too fantastical. Was he really gonna make that move? It was quite bold, but they accepted it and
they were all really excited about it when she first found out. So, he really just blamed
Pope Benedict for it all, said he was trying to stop
this wedding from happening and that he was gonna fly
to Rome to fix this himself, get to the bottom of
what was going on here. But Benita was not falling
for the bullshit anymore. She had felt like she really
woke up to who Paolo really was and the lies that she
was constantly being fed. So, she began to question
everything he had ever told her, everything that he had ever promised her, and she began making phone
call after phone call to the venue they were
supposed to be married at, the caterers they were
gonna be working with, and asked them about
Paolo and their wedding. But no one knew anything
about their wedding. No one had even heard of Paolo. Obviously, she felt incredibly frustrated. First of all, just that
he was lying to her, but also because these
were calls and things that she could've taken
care of months ago. I mean, this is like couple
weeks out to their wedding and he insisted that she
not get involved in anything 'cause he wanted to surprise her. So, because she had
spent a lot of her career investigating the truth, she decided to go ahead
and investigate Paolo and get the truth herself. - She basically started
to uncover everything, layer by layer, piece by piece. - [Benita] I made a
very strategic decision to start playing a
cat-and-mouse game basically. - She did not let Paolo
know that she was onto him. She just started investigating. - I wanted to get all the
information that I could get before I really confronted him, because clearly he's not
gonna tell me the truth. - So, she decided to not let
Paolo know that she was on him. She wanted to kinda just
keep playing the act. Meanwhile, she has hired
two private investigators, one in the United States and one in Italy. She wanted to have complete
proof before she confronted him because he was such a
weasel about everything that she wanted to have the facts ready so he couldn't dispute things. And at the same time that Benita is really catching on to Paolo's truth, the allegations against him
for scientific misconduct were really heating up drastically. The Karolinska Institutet was
now looking into the claims that he fabricated parts
of his medical research. So, Benita told him that because
of all of these allegations and all of the stress that he was under, that she felt it was best
to postpone the wedding. And because the wedding was
right around the corner, she needed to let people know immediately because a lotta people
were flying out for it and had made a lot of arrangements. So, just weeks before she's
supposed to get married, she sends out an email
letting everyone know that the wedding is postponed. - [Benita] "Dear family and friends, "it is with an extraordinarily heavy heart "that I write to inform
you that due to unforeseen "and unfortunate personal circumstances, "we have to cancel our
July 11th wedding in Italy. "We greatly respect the lengths "and expense you've undertaken
in order to make plans "to celebrate with us this
summer and we are deeply sorry "for the great inconvenience this causes. "We respectfully ask for some privacy "to figure out our next steps." - I was like, "What?" If my jaw coulda been on the ground, it woulda been on the ground. - So, one of the ways that Paolo was able to explain his
special connection to the pope and why the pope was willing to marry them was because he was the pope's
personal doctor, apparently. But after her own investigation,
Benita learned that Paolo was in fact not the
pope's personal doctor. And they gave her a statement saying that, "There is no
personal doctor of the pope "with the name Macchiarini. "The pope has surely never
promised to officiate "the wedding of Macchiarini "and doesn't know
someone with such a name. "On the 11th of July, "the pope was traveling in Latin America, "and this was on his agenda
a long time before July. "This is enough." It also became clear very quickly that Paolo did not know
the Obamas, Elton John, John Legend, or the Clintons or any of the other famous
people he claimed to know. And remember the $100,000 engagement ring that Paolo bought Benita? Well, she got it appraised and turns out that bitch
was only worth $1,000. And the Italian private
investigator that she hired ended up finding out that Paolo was still married to his wife, whose name was Emanuela Pecchia. She couldn't believe it. He was still in an active marriage. But at this point, once she
figured out all of these lies, she had already quit her job,
changed a ton of her life, introduced her daughter to this guy who was supposed to be a big
part of her life going forward, not to mention she pulled
her daughter out of school so that they could
move, and they had spent at least $50,000 already
in wedding arrangements. But despite all of these
terrible truths coming to light, Benita still wanted to go to Italy when they were supposed to get married to continue her own investigation. She actually booked her
flight for July 11th, 2015, which was the day that
she was supposed to be marrying the man of her dreams. But instead, she toasted herself
with a glass of champagne in between tears on
the plane at 6:00 p.m., which was the time that they were supposed
to be saying, "I do." She said she wanted to go to
her venue and take it all in, all the stuff that she was
never supposed to have. And she also wanted to go
to Barcelona for herself and see the house that Paolo had so clearly been hiding
from her this whole time. So, two of her close
friends, Leigh and Nancy, also had their flights
for the wedding originally and they weren't able to cancel them, so they decided to just
join her out there, and the three of them
kinda went on this quest to find out more. While they were in Italy, her friends suggested that maybe
she put on one of the gowns that she was supposed to wear over the four-day wedding
celebration and take some photos, so she did that. And she said it was kinda devastating, but also empowering to do so and it gave her the
courage to keep on going and find out more of the truth. So, after all of them left
Italy, they went to Barcelona. Benita was convinced that the house that he had been hiding from
her was kinda the missing link. And during this whole time, Benita and Paolo are still texting. In fact, she told him that
she had gone to a lake in Upstate New York for the weekend, and he claimed that he was
working in Russia at the time. So, the three of them took a
rental car out to Barcelona. - I told him that I had gone
to a lake in Upstate New York with some friends because
the wedding weekend was too emotional for me. He has no idea I'm in Europe. - We're in Barcelona.
- Barcelona. - [Nancy] We're getting ready
to do a little road trip. - [Benita] Also known as a stakeout. - And Benita wore a blonde
wig to disguise herself and they drove up the
long hill to Paolo's home. As they drove, they would pull
off on the side of the road and take pictures of them
flipping off the camera. I mean, it was clear
what their mission was. They were trying to keep it light and fun, and it was kinda the only way that Benita could keep herself going. And as they approached this house, Benita actually saw
Paolo outside of the home and realized that he was
definitely not in Russia. Just another lie. And she actually starts recording him. And you can tell she's just so angry when she notices that he's not alone. He's actually with a woman and two kids. - [Benita] I'm in the
car, my heart is pounding. And I saw him come down
the steps with his dog. (beep), he's there. (beep) you, (beep). (beep) you! You lying (beep) sack of (beep)! Yeah, I see you in your white
shirt and your black shorts and your gray hair, (beep) you. Two little kids coming down the stairs. Wow. My heart is in my chest. I'm gonna puke. - And we know that Paolo
had another wife in Italy who he claimed that he
was still in the process of getting divorced from, but this woman was someone
completely different. At first, she wanted to get outta the car and just confront him, but
she said she felt paralyzed. And she became really concerned about the other two kids that were there. This wasn't their fault. They probably had no
idea what was going on and she didn't want to traumatize them. - Up until then, I had been thinking about getting outta the car. Once I saw those kids, I couldn't move. - So, they decided that her
friends would get outta the car and go drop him off a gift, a wedding gift for the
wedding that did not happen. So, they just roll on up to the house and Benita's watching the whole thing. And when the two of them, Leigh and Nancy, knocked on his door, Paolo opened up and
looked completely shocked. And all he said was, "Wow." (Nancy speaking foreign language) Her friends talk about how
he was clearly nervous, just kinda shifting his
weight from side to side. His eyes were darting around, like he was trying to figure
out what lie he had told them and how he was gonna explain this house. He knew something was going on, but he was kinda trying to
maintain that smoothness. To keep their cover, though, they said that the only
reason they were there is because they had non-refundable
tickets for the wedding, so they just kinda made a trip out of it, and so they wanted to just
stop by and give him this gift. (Paolo speaking foreign language) (Nancy speaking foreign language) - [Paolo] Oh. Thank you so much.
- Just a little something. We know how busy you are. - [Paolo] No, that's okay, it's fine. Thank you so much. - And a normal reaction obviously would be if someone drove all the way
out to visit you in Barcelona and give you a gift for a
wedding that you canceled, it'd be typically pretty
nice to invite them inside for some water or coffee or whatever. But instead, he was like,
(laughing) "Where's your car?" So, they got the hint that
he did not want them there and they left. And Benita saw the whole
thing happen and was so angry. She said at that point she just
started wailing in the car, like furious. - [Benita] (beep)! (beep), (beep), (beep), (beep)! (beep) you! - And driving away from
his house in Barcelona and seeing him go back up
the stairs into the house was the last time that
Benita would ever see him. So, after this, she decides
to go back to the States and try to pull her life together. One of the first things
that she wanted to do, obviously, was get rid of all
of Paolo's shit in her house. She didn't want any reminders of him, and one of the biggest
reminders of him was the piano. So, she actually sold it
to this woman on Craigslist and the two of them ended
up becoming friends. And a few months later, a few
months into their friendship, they were on a trip together. And that's when this woman mentions to her that that piano she sold
her a few months earlier had prerecorded classical songs on it. - And at that point, her jaw
dropped and she looked at me. She's there busy driving, and then she flips her head
and looks at me and she says, "You're kidding me!" So, I said, "Yes, I mean, it has a lot." - It turns out that piano
could play all by itself. And that video clip I
played earlier in this video is a prerecording with
him pretending to play. In fact, at one point, you can see him kind of
dusting off the keys, not even playing it, and
the song is just going. (soft piano music) So, so many things about
him that he had told her were simply just not true. It took a huge emotional toll on her. It was very hard feeling like this person was her whole future, her whole world, and then having it all
crash down in an instant. But she now felt like
she had a responsibility to expose Paolo for the
man that he really was because she feared that this
guy was operating on people and there were a lot of complaints and concerns about his practices. So, Benita ended up writing two emails to the Karolina Institutet
to tell them that Paolo was not the man that
he was claiming to be. But what Benita didn't know is there was others doing this too. A lotta the colleagues who had caught on to Paolo's misconduct were also trying to bring it to the attention of the
public and his employers. One journalist in
particular, Adam Ciralsky, had heard of Paolo, the
world-renowned surgeon who had actually been having an affair with a TV producer who
was covering his story, and he decided to go
ahead and look into Paolo. He wrote down all of the places that Paolo had claimed to
have been, studied, or worked. He thought it was just crazy
that this was a big lie perpetuated by someone who was really at the
pinnacle of their profession. So, he said he decided to do a deep dive and pulled every CV he could find from any conference he'd ever been at, any medical institution
that had ever had him, and he actually put them
all on a giant spreadsheet. And when he looked at everything that Paolo had claimed to do, he realized there was no
possible way it was true. He realized that if his claims were true, he would've had to be a tenured professor at four universities all at the same time. Paolo had listed that he
was at University of Alabama receiving his master's
degree in biostatistics at the same time that he
was doing a fellowship in thoracic surgery. So, the journalist, Adam,
contacted the university and found out that the
biostatistics degree was fake and so was the fellowship. It became clear that he was lying about what he had done
in the United States and what medical training he had received. And obviously, that is all very concerning for a guy who is performing
serious groundbreaking surgeries and working on people's throats. And to make matters even worse, Adam actually discovered that Paolo had lied about teaching
at a university in Italy and some of his colleagues
actually knew about it and had been trying to
raise the alarms for awhile. So, now it was extremely clear
that Paolo was a giant fraud. He had lied about his
qualifications and his experience, and he was now traveling the world, performing human experiments pretty much, disguised as groundbreaking surgeries. So, the reporter and other colleagues that he had worked with in the past tried their best to get the
attention of the higher-ups to warn them about Paolo. So, members of the Karolinska Institutet first became concerned about Paolo's seemingly
groundbreaking surgeries when 24-year-old Turkish
woman named Yesim Cetir was brought into Paolo after
a routine elective surgery in her home country
resulted in a nicked trachea and she was hoping that
Paolo could help her. When her surgeons were unable
to correct this mistake, Paolo was consulted and ended up deciding that the best course of
action was for him to operate. And at this time that he was
called in to operate on her, he had already performed
four of his trachea implants. So, Yesim was flown into Sweden,
where Paolo would operate, but his operation made
everything so, so much worse. She ended up requiring over
191 additional procedures to correct new and old
complications with her trachea. These complications led
to multiple strokes, leaving her partially
blind and unable to walk. And the emotional and physical stress that Yesim was going into really took a toll on
her caretakers in the ICU because they said it was just such torture to see this young girl and
how badly she was suffering. It was obvious that she
was not getting any better, so her care team started
looking more into Paolo. And after looking through
his medical papers about his successful and
groundbreaking surgeries, once again, it was clear to
them that things did not add up. When comparing the
documentation published by Paolo versus the actual medical
charts of the patients, they realized that Paolo
had been falsifying data to make his surgery look better,
the results to look better. For example, one of his patients, one of his first patients back in 2011 who went through the procedure became much worse after the procedure, but Paolo reported that
he was asymptomatic and also tumor-free. And he claimed that a healthy trachea was developing for the patient. However, a real biopsy
showed that the trachea was completely dead. The patient ended up with a collapsed lung because of the operation. Another one of his reports
was written in a way that made it seem like his patient was doing well and
recovering post-surgery, but it turns out they had actually died. So, once his colleagues were certain that Paolo had been falsifying this data and endangering the lives
of all of these patients, they put together a 500-page complaint outlying all of their accusations. However, the response to the
report was basically nothing. It took the Karolinska
university officials several more months to even launch an official investigation into Paolo. But eventually they put out a statement saying that even though his work didn't always meet their standards, there was no scientific
misconduct that occurred, and so his work would be continued. And everyone who was involved in trying to expose Paolo was pissed. But meanwhile, Benita is planning how she is gonna share her whole story with the public for the
first time, and she ended up deciding to go with a
"Vanity Fair" article. And in January 2016, the "Vanity Fair" article
that was published by the journalist Adam
Ciralsky finally came out and it detailed all the personal and professional misconduct of Paolo. And when the public heard
about all of the details and all of the fraudulent
activity of Paulo, people were pissed. And not long after the "Vanity
Fair" article came out, an additional documentary was published called "Fatal Experiments," and it really raised additional concerns about his techniques. And they even published footage of Paolo admitting to an issue with one
patient's artificial trachea, even though he was still moving forward with another patient. And during all of this, Paolo
just deferred the blame, saying that these patients
who had lost their lives died from prior complications
that were underlying. He denied everything and
said that it wasn't his work that led to their deaths. - It's difficult. It's difficult to be attacked
and be on the front pages. At least if we would have
done something wrong, then I would understand it, but... I believe we didn't. - However, the public
just did not believe him. And with all the additional information from the "Vanity Fair" article, I mean, it just was not gonna work. So, the Karolinska
Institutet had no choice but to further their investigation. And during this investigation, the leadership of both
the Karolinska Institutet and the leadership of
the Nobel Prize Committee in Medicine all resigned. They finally ended up deciding to reverse their initial conclusions on Paolo. They suspended him and found him guilty of
scientific misconduct. And to this day, only one
out of the eight people who received an artificial trachea from Paolo is still alive, and that person actually
had their trachea removed and replaced with a donor organ. - I want him to go to trial
and I wanna go to the trial. And I want him to look
around that courtroom and see the families of the patients whose lives he's destroyed and see my face and at least be forced
for whatever few seconds to look at us all in the eye and maybe understand what he did. And then I want him to
be held accountable. I think he needs behind bars. Benita's last communication with him was a long text saying, "Jig's up. "I know it all, you're a fraud. "How could you do this to me?" And it was a long message, and all that motherfucker
could say back was "Wow," just like before. It's just his favorite
response, a good wow. In the end, Benita says
that she's most angry about what Paolo did to her daughter. She's an innocent child who
lost her father to cancer, has been through so much, and
really had hoped that Paolo was gonna be a great person in her life, a father figure potentially, and all of that was ripped away from her. Paolo was officially indicted
for aggravated assault for three deadly procedures
that took place in Sweden. And as of right now, he is
continuing to deny all charges, and trial is supposed to
take place sometime in 2022, so we'll have to see how this unravels. But that's all I have
on this story right now. I might have to revisit it
when the trial is going on. You'll have to let me know if
you'd be interested in that. But I definitely wanna
hear your thoughts on Paolo and the entire situation. I mean, it's really hard to believe and hard to wrap your mind around, really, how many fraudulent doctors
there are out there. I mean, the fact that he was able to just fake his credentials,
fake his experience, it's scary, man, thinking about it. What do you think about the whole wedding and the pope and how it was all a big lie? I mean, how do people keep that going? I mean, how do you get through your day? How do you sleep at night when you're lying to so many people, so many people who you claim
to love and care about? It's just like a whole new level of crazy. I haven't heard a
fraudulent romance like this since "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," so I had to share this one. - Sing to me, Paolo. ♪ This is what dreams are made of ♪ - But before I go, I want
to thank today's sponsor for making this video
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a great day out there. Stay safe, and I will see you next time. (mysterious music) (chimes twinkling)
