Benita Alexander, a former NBC News producer who dated surgeon Dr. Paolo Macchiarini before he was convicted of research fraud, has revealed the “red flags” that hinted at his alleged deception.
In an interview with People, Alexander called Macchiarini “an incredibly skilled pathological liar,” referencing both their personal relationship and Macchiarini’s surgical career, which came to an end after his experimental surgeries left several patients dead.
Macchiarini’s fall from grace has been covered in several documentaries, including Netflix’s “Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife” and Investigation Discovery’s “He Lied About Everything,” on which Alexander worked as a producer. A dramatization of Macchiarini’s case recently aired in Season 2 of NBC’s “Dr. Death,” starring Édgar Ramírez as Macchiarini and Mandy Moore as Alexander.
Who is Paolo Macchiarini?
Paolo Macchiarini is an Italian surgeon and researcher who was credited with the world’s first synthetic organ transplant in 2011 after he coated an artificial trachea with the recipient’s stem cells, per Vanity Fair. He had a successful career performing his artificial trachea transplants and researching at several major European institutes.
However, Macchiarini was fired from Sweden’s Karoliska Institute in 2016 for allegedly falsifying his resume, according to The Associated Press. The majority of his artificial trachea recipients died from complications following their surgeries, and in 2018, Swedish authorities opened an investigation into three of the deaths and gave Macchiarini a suspended sentence for one of them.
Swedish chief prosecutor Mikael Björk called Macchiarini’s surgeries “completely unlawful human experiments,” according to The Associated Press. In 2019, Macchiarini was sentenced to 16 months in Italian prison for forging documents and abuse of office.
Macchiarini has denied any criminal wrongdoing, per The Associated Press.
Who is Benita Alexander?
Benita Alexander is a former NBC news producer who has received several awards for her work, including two Emmys, per Vanity Fair. She and Macchiarini met in 2013 when she interviewed him for an NBC special, and the two began dating shortly thereafter.
Alexander and Macchiarini started planning their wedding but broke off their engagement in 2015 after Alexander discovered Macchiarini had been lying to her about several details of their wedding plans, including his purported friendship with the pope and several world leaders. She also learned he was still married to his first wife, although she said he told her he was divorced.
Alexander recently told People that Macchiarini “was a very cunning, skilled manipulator,” which she alleges allowed him to mislead her and others. She said the beginning of their relationship was characterized by “love bombing,” a practice of excessive attention and gifting that may be used as a manipulation tactic.
Early in their relationship, Macchiarini took Alexander on elaborate vacations and gave her expensive gifts, and she now says she should have seen those as warning signs.
“He literally swept me off my feet in a way that I have never been swept off my feet before, which in hindsight was a red flag,” Alexander said. “It was classic love bombing. It was romance on steroids.”