♪ he was the closest thing to prince charming. >> the world's most famous surgeon. >> the george clooney type of feel. sexy. >> this web of lies, a nightmare. >> a highly regarded doctor and surgeon. people could be dying. ♪ >> he padded his impressive resume. >> he falsified his qualifications and work experience. that's interesting for a guy who is going and cutting people's necks and chests open. >> it's not like somebody was standing there, waving a red flag, caution, caution, this man is a fake.

the very first thing he told me was that andrea bocelli was going to be singing. the list kept going and going. the icing on can cake was that the pope was going to marry them. are you kidding me? >> just trying to wrap our brains around everything, how we could all be so fooled. ♪ >> and the medical breakthroughs? >> the suffering was horrendous. >> every stone we turned over, we found a new lie. >> the doctor should be jailed for what he did. >> you have to ask, when does medical deception become medical crime? >> if we don't do anything, a lot of people will die. >> she was on this mission. she wanted to see him. and look him in the eye and ask

him, what the hell? >> how dare you? who the hell does that? ♪ >> benita was a television producer in new york city. she loved her job. 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, but so committed to her friends and so committed to her daughter. >> she's always been making sure that everything she does has an "a"-plus on it. >> she is always done up very glamorous, but you don't always expect someone to look like that to be so warm and loving and giving.

>> she just is the most loyal, non-judgmental person you probably will ever meet. >> benita was assigned to work on a story about a brilliant headline-making surgeon, dr. paolo macchiarini. he was performing groundbreaking synthetic organ transplants, and he developed a technique to replace a patient's trachea with a plastic tube seeded with the patient's own stem cells. >> that's right, good girl. >> we were following the story of a toddler from korea who was being brought to the u.s. she was born with no trachea at all. so she had been hospitalized from the day she was born. she was going to be the youngest person ever to get one of these artificial tracheas. >> it was an exciting story. i mean, the hope with the story was that this little girl was going to be kind of a miracle child. just reading about him, you really got the sense from him that he wanted to help people, that he wanted to help humanity. >> here, we do everything from -- >> a breakthrough. a report that a doctor has found

a way to grow a new windpipe. >> a surgical first that could offer new hope. >> all these studies are ongoing, this could be the future. >> he had this nickname that he was a rock star surgeon. and a super surgeon. and i think that came from the fact that he was willing to take risks. he was a cowboy. >> he was basically a wonder child. incredibly successful. he was very much sought after internationally. >> he was seen as someone who's gonna revolutionize the whole field of organ transplantation. >> it seemed as he was able to tailor-make organs that you could perhaps even mass produce in the future. people were thinking that with his technique, you could do synthetic hearts and synthetic livers, synthetic esophagi, even synthetic parts of the brain. >> he held a post at the karolinska institute in sweden. that's where they hand out the nobel prize in medicine.

>> they thought of him as maybe someone who would win a nobel prize one day. >> did i think he was gonna be a part of my life? no. absolutely not. we met the afternoon before we were gonna sit down and interview him. and it was -- it was 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, like, don't think about it." >> i think the thing that was always a question mark to me was my personal life. i had recently been divorced from my husband of 12 years, who is the father of our daughter. it was a messy divorce. and it was difficult. i had a rebound relationship with a lovely person, but i wasn't ready to be in another serious relationship.

i was just kind of putting one foot in front of the other and getting through. i've always been a workaholic. so that's always been my refuge. >> and now, with benita's upcoming story about dr. macchiarini, she began spending a lot of time away from home in illinois, where the surgery was going to take place. and on top of everything, there's added pressure. >> when paolo and benita first met, her ex-husband had brain cancer. and it was heart-wrenching. >> the prognosis was awful. and 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 9. >> it was very strenuous, because 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 was a really good listener. he and i started going to dinners and i was kind of pouring my heart out to him about all this stuff. 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, you know, during that period at a really critical time. >> it was very close to the end with my ex-husband. and he was in hospice. he was already in a coma at that point. i couldn't physically say good-bye to him. and paolo kept saying to me, "you need to find a way to say good-bye to him. however you do it in your own way, it's the only way you're gonna be able to get through this." and so i said, "i know what i

want to do." and paolo said, "okay, i'll help you." birds of paradise were my ex-husband's favorite flower. we had them at our wedding. so he drove me on his motorcycle. and we went to a flower shop. and we took a long motorcycle ride along the illinois river, until i found a place that i wanted to throw them in -- in the water. and there was something about that day, the fact that he had taken the time, that he had driven me all the way out there. and he had just sat there waiting patiently while i did what i had to do. and he hugged me. he could see the pain in my face. and i didn't resist. it wasn't just a quick hug. there was something really sort of intense about it. i remember thinking, you know, "i'm falling for this guy." that was the moment i knew. that day marked the beginning of our romantic involvement. >> but it was really complicated.

paolo explained that he had been separated for years, but the divorce still wasn't legal. and benita, she was still a reporter doing a documentary on him. >> it was really difficult, because i was falling in love with somebody that i was doing a story about, which you are not supposed to do. if you get involved with somebody, your objectivity could be compromised. and i agonized about it. >> i was very surprised to see her so focused on this guy. and so i figured he must be special to kind of take that risk. >> did i compromise my journalistic integrity? yeah. i really didn't know what to do. >> and that's when paolo really upped the stakes. he told her he was whisking her away with him on a long weekend in italy. against her better judgment, she agreed.

>> we are on our way to venice in a motorboat. >> he was taking me to venice. the whole trip was so romantic. i mean, just over the top romance. the food, the flowers, the dinners. he rented a private boat and we took day trips to these islands. that was truly being swept off my feet. >> it was almost like a scene from any romantic love story that you could imagine, he did it. ♪ >> this started out as a beautiful love story. it turned into a nightmare. at some point this thing had to implode.

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. oh, my god! >> i never had this fantasy of prince charming coming in. i love you. >> men aren't prince charming and women are not cinderella. none of us are. he was the closest thing we ever could imagine to prince charming. >> paolo came into benita's life and he was gorgeous, had an amazing career, spent money on her. >> this is our cave of love. with so many roses, petals on the floor. and the most beautiful woman. >> i love you, i love you, i love you. >> it was a constant shower of flowers and gifts. he would leave notes in lipstick on my bathroom mirror. he gave me a lot of really beautiful jewelry. >> he seemed to have unlimited money. to drop $10,000 on something was nothing for him.

he would spend money like you would not even believe, the food, the roses on the bed, shaped like a heart. >> and then there were the trips, long weekends around the world. >> we are here at the athens airport. >> we went to london, we went to mexico, russia, sweden, puerto rico, the bahamas twice, greece. >> i love you, my love. >> her life suddenly went from very down to earth to this kind of glamorous, almost celebrity lifestyle that i was like, "what is happening to benita?" >> paolo kind of gives you that george clooney type of feel, that salt/pepper gray, sexy kinda guy. >> he spoke, what, six languages -- >> seven languages. >> seven languages. [ speaking foreign language ] >> he reminds me of that beer commercial, the one with the most interesting man in the world. >> he is the most interesting

man in the world. >> you know, meeting for the first time, frankly, was a bit intimidated. i thought, here's this extremely well educated person, world renowned surgeon, what am i gonna say to this guy? and he was just incredibly down to earth. you know, it was really easy to talk to him. >> he would record these little video love messages to me. >> i just wanted to send you a few loving good morning words and a lot of kisses, to my princess. >> i mean, he was even concerned about her friends. i had breast cancer, and he called me about, you know, what to do with my surgeries. >> benita had a sparkle in her eye. she was blushing a lot. >> she had finally met the person that she was supposed to be with. >> i cannot stop thinking about you. i'm especially proud that you are mine. i love you so very much. >> this is not somebody who's just telling her he loved her. he was doing it with actions.

>> when i first met paolo, the one thing he didn't do was dance, and i love to dance. but then he surprised me. we were in this little bar in mexico and all of a sudden, salsa music comes on and he takes my hand and he said, "will you dance with me?" and i said, "excuse me?" he had been taking private salsa lessons in russia, he said, for months to -- just to learn how to salsa dance with me. ♪ >> benita had a strong support system. friends and family members would look after her daughter when she spent time with paolo. >> i was very hesitant to introduce paolo to my daughter. i wanted to be absolutely sure that this was someone that -- that i wanted to keep in my life. she thought he was amazing. wooing her was as important to him as wooing me. >> with these two beautiful girls. >> we were his princesses. it was like living a fairytale.

>> he took us to the bahamas. >> wow! >> and he was amazing with her. >> oh, we have a ballet. >> it was first time since her dad died i had seen her seem happy. and i distinctly remember thinking, "if anyone is going to step in to try and fill her dad's shoes, he's a great guy to do that." this was our first christmas together. i love christmas. >> you remember? >> you know, he hands me a gift. i don't think anything of it.

>> oh, my god. >> i open this gift and it's a ring. and i looked at him, like -- "is this what i think it is?" and he's, like, "yeah." i actually couldn't talk for a while. it was a gorgeous ring and i was so stunned. that's how he proposed. it was sweet. >> and that ring, he slipped and admitted that he had spent $100,000 on it, but they still had a lot to work out, like paolo's divorce. they had to figure out where to live. how would they balance their careers? >> i wanted him to stick around for new year's, and he said he couldn't. he said, "i have a really important surgery. i have some really high-powered clients." like dignitaries and world leaders, and -- "what?" that's when he told me that there was this kind of clandestine network who are on

call basically for these people. he told me that it included the clintons and that he and bill were tight, that they were good friends and that they played tennis together. he adds the obamas to this mix. >> there's only one way to solve these challenges. >> as part of this vip network, he had become one of pope francis' private consulting doctors. >> it sounds crazy, i know, but if anybody sort of fit that bill, paolo fit that bill. >> somebody has to do that job, so why not him? >> as much time as he spent in new york, it still was a long distance relationship. >> he was holding positions in london, russia, sweden. >> lots of hospitals are inviting him in to say, "look, we've got a patient here who's had their windpipe damaged." so he's this kind of star expert that people bring in. >> he often had to cancel things at the last minute because he had an emergency surgery. >> he was gone for, you know, either a few days or a week. and my sister might not be able to get ahold of him because he's saying, "hey, i'm gonna be doing surgery. i might not be reachable."

i mean, it all seemed to make sense. >> it was frustrating, but it's a hazard of dating the super surgeon. >> so happy, i just cannot believe it that in three days i will see you again and book my flight. >> we knew we wanted to get married in italy. we didn't have that much time. and he said to me, "look, let me take over all the planning of the wedding." i was really hesitant to do that. i mean, no offense, but what man -- what man knows how to plan a wedding? >> when benita told me that paolo was gonna do everything. i'm like, "well, damn. you deserve it. it's your time to be able to show up and enjoy the party." >> paolo is catholic. he was absolutely adamant that he wanted it to be a catholic wedding. >> and i said, "look, 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 going to go contacts in rome." now i knew he had supposedly done work at the vatican. then when he landed in rome, i said, "who are you meeting with? and he said, "you're not gonna believe me." and he said, "i'm meeting with the pope." ♪ >> he goes to this meeting, and i'm waiting, and i'm waiting, and i'm waiting. and he finally calls me and he's like, "you need to sit down." and i'm like, "what's going on?" t-mobile is upgrading its network at a record pace. we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. and now that sprint is a part of t-mobile we're turning up the speed. upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. to bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america.

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♪ paolo and benita were starting to plan their wedding, but they couldn't find a priest willing to marry two divorcees in the catholic church. so paolo told her he'd pay a visit to the vatican to use his personal connection to the pope to see what he could do. >> he finally calls me and he says they took me in to meet francis. and then he says, "and he said he can help us." and then he said, "but," and there's this long silence on the phone. and i said, "but what?" he said, "he offered to marry us himself." and i said, oh, [ bleep ], "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, said, "well, i'm gonna talk to you later." and i hung up. everybody thought it was a joke. >> i was like, "are you kidding me?" i said, "that's nuts. you're not even catholic." >> i'm like, "last i checked, i don't think divorced people get remarried in the catholic church." i don't know. >> and i got on the computer and googled like, "does the pope marry people?" but the thing is what popped up was the pope had just married a whole bunch of couples at the vatican. >> pope francis has married 20 new couples, some of whom had been living in sin. >> so i looked at it and i thought, "okay, then maybe it's not completely out of the question." [ laughter ] >> oh, my god! >> no, no no, i'm not joking, we're getting married by the pope. from that moment on, i felt like my head was spinning and it didn't stop spinning. the dress that i picked was kind

of sexy. and i thought, "i can't wear that in front of the pope," you know? so i go back to the dress shop and i said, "is there any way you can put me in touch with the dress designer?" >> i got a call and it was a salon of ours that we work with. and she said she had a really high-profile client. >> fabulous! >> so i took a couple friends with me, and my daughter, and i was going to be videotaping the meeting. i thought, "you know, if this is really happening, i'm gonna start documenting all this stuff." i knew that it was imperative that it be kept quiet. so i had everybody sign a non-disclosure agreement. >> basically you sign to not tell anybody anything. zip it, lock it, put it in your pocket. is there going to be a lot of italian family there? are they very, like, traditional? >> you should probably just let me tell you everything.

>> yeah, go ahead. >> he starts asking me questions. you know, i explained who paolo was. and then i dropped the bomb that the pope is marrying us. >> and i literally was like, "oh, my god." i couldn't believe it. i literally sat there. i think i was in shock the whole time. and then it just starts sinking in. and i was like, "okay. this is a really big deal. this is not a joke." >> you better start designing, matthew. >> the pressure was on. i mean, it was on. pressure was definitely on. so this is that lace, which i love. "is it a ball gown? is it a trumpet? we're gonna show off your curves. what is the pope gonna want?" 'cause i really like to show curves, like marilyn monroe, right? and i'm thinking, is he gonna go, "whoa." ♪ >> paolo claimed that the vatican had offered us the pope's summer residence.

which is in a small, beautiful, romantic little town called castel gandolfo. it's about a 40-minute drive outside of rome. he said he had secured a castle, and that's where everybody was staying. >> it made perfect sense in the scheme of the whole prince charming thing, that we would stay in a castle. >> he would reveal the surprises to me sort of slowly, one by one. the very first thing he told me was that andrea bocelli was going to be singing in the church. >> i was like, "wow, really?" she said, he said that his mother and andrea bocelli's mother knew each other because they were from the same town in italy. >> and then he added that john legend was going to be playing during the ceremony. >> i had just read that you can actually pay john legend to perform at a private party. surgeons are known to have

money, so i would think, okay. >> and then it was elton john. the guest list just kept growing and growing. >> the beckhams, the obamas. >> the clintons. >> the clintons. for some reason, russell crowe was on the list. >> so the invitation came wrapped in a lambskin envelope. >> and it was really fancy with gold lettering, and embossed. >> it was very extravagant. i don't know if you've ever priced out invitations, very expensive. >> the wedding wasn't just one and done. it was going to be a full four-day affair and that meant benita needed four beautiful gowns. >> isn't it incredible that next week we are to visit the place where we will marry?

♪ >> so he wanted this very elaborate wedding dance. and it was gonna culminate in me coming out in this ball gown. >> he wanted that skirt to come off, and so she could show off, like, you know, her moves. he was just gonna grab her, pull her in, and then rip. there we go. ♪ >> he told me that he wanted to play piano for me at the wedding. and that he had played piano as a child, and he wanted to re-learn the piano. my daughter was playing violin at the time. so he'd be there playing the piano, she'd be there playing the violin. it was actually lovely. >> but while the wedding prep was kicking into high gear, benita said paolo was becoming increasingly tense about work.

>> in november of 2014, we had a trip planned to california to spend thanksgiving with my family. and he had been really stressed in the weeks before. and he had been talking to me for some time about how there were people that were against him, and "his enemies." >> and one morning she woke up and read in "the new york times" that colleagues at the karolinska institute were accusing him of scientific misconduct. >> it gets a lot of press coverage. >> i'm like, "what the hell is going on? why didn't you tell me?" this is ava. these are ava's shoulders. they square off. and bear it all. but now ava's shoulders are stronger than ever. this is what medicare from blue cross blue shield does for ava. and with plans that fit your life and budget, you can count on us when it matters most. this is medicare from blue cross blue shield. this is the benefit of blue.

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you've got benita and paolo gearing up for the wedding of the century, and then in paolo's professional life, well, there were serious criticisms being raised. as with any pioneering technique, there were some complications, and it wasn't a clear-cut success from the beginning. little hannah, the subject of

benita's documentary. she sadly never made it out of the hospital after her surgery. >> i was devastated. i had become very close to her family. it was awful. paolo was really depressed. we had become attached to her. we all hoped that one day we'd be going back to korea to see her running around at home, and now she was dead. it was awful. >> paolo headed up a research lab at the karolinska institute, one of europe's top-ranked medical universities, and had performed three trachea surgeries at its affiliated hospital. several doctors who worked alongside paolo, some tending to the patients he had implanted with those new tracheas, started voicing concerns about the new procedure. in particular, they took issue with the way he'd written them up in medical journals. >> we went through six of paolo macchiarini's articles.

we could show that there were lies and falsifications in the articles he'd published. >> they filed an official complaint with the university. and this became worldwide news while benita and paolo were visiting her family. >> this was bad. it was all over the news. he was insanely stressed. i've never seen him like that. >> of course i supported him, you know, like any loving partner or spouse would do. he was adamant that this was gonna go away. and there was no basis to these allegations. and it was just these jealous colleagues of his that were out to get him. and i believed he was being unfairly maligned. i'm helping him answer press requests. you know, he felt like his career was imploding. >> she went into full pr mode, took over my dining room table, spread all this stuff out, was on the computer. he came in crying. it was very emotional. >> you know, we just -- we felt bad. >> honestly, it made me like him more.

he has an intimidating presence. and so to see him vulnerable like that just made him more human. >> i was gonna do whatever i could to be by his side and help him get through it. >> soon after, paolo and benita headed off to italy for a quick weekend. >> so we had gone to italy. and i kept saying to paolo, "while we're here, can we please go to castel gandolfo? and i wanna see place where we're getting married." and 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 want to see this place." we drive to castel gandolfo. and he showed me where i would be walking in, and he showed me the lake where the fireworks would be, and he showed me the little city hall where he said the sealed paperwork was already in there with our names on it and everything was ready for the wedding. but the whole time he was in a

foul mood. and i was really, like, annoyed. because, you know, i'm seeing the place where we're gonna get married, and i wanted him to be more excited. and i remember asking him, like, you know, "what's your problem?" and he basically just said that he was preoccupied with all this stuff going on, with the allegations. >> regardless, the countdown to the wedding was on. ♪ >> to the beautiful bride! >> and the wedding of a lifetime. >> cheers. >> cheers. ♪ >> the excitement for this wedding was palpable. with my friends, we started calling it the wedding of the century. it just felt like this was going to be akin to a royal wedding. ♪ >> it started to feel like she was princess diana or something. >> i think many of us were very concerned about what we were gonna wear.

>> what do you wear to a wedding that the pope is at and the obamas are at? like, i just don't have clothes like that. >> i had not just one special outfit but three. >> yeah. it was, by far, the most expensive shopping trip of my experience of my entire life. >> so on top of everything else, he first said that the pope was going to allow both of us to take communion in the church during the wedding. which also would be highly controversial, because divorcees are not allowed to take communion in the catholic church. and then he adds to it that, because we have so many lovely gay friends, and because of -- because of matthew designing your dress, he wants to open it up so that if gays want to take communion during our wedding ceremony, they can do that, too. >> i grew up catholic. i was like, "wow, this is unbelievable. this is really gonna happen?" this would be the time in your life that was the moment that

you are accepted. >> and after the wedding, they decided benita and her daughter were going to move to barcelona with paolo, where he had a home. benita quit her television job and pulled her daughter out of her private school and got ready to move. >> this is the place where you and i will live the rest of our life. i love you. >> three or four times we were supposed to go to barcelona, and every time at the last minute, there was an emergency surgery. every single time. >> her leaving her job and having never been there, i was kind of like, "wow, that's odd." >> i had asked a group of girlfriends to go to the spa. i'm walking up to the reception desk to pay, and i pull out my phone. i see this email. the subject line just says, "the pope." >> she looked stricken. >> it was like somebody knocked the wind out of me.

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♪ benita organized a spa day. we were all having a great time. she was looking at her phone and she looked worried. >> 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. >> it's not only that the pope is going to be on a different continent on the day of their wedding. according to the article, the trip had been planned for a long time. >> i actually literally almost physically fell over. >> she looked stricken, and her friend said, "is everything okay?" >> and she said, "no. the pope is going to be in south america on the day of my wedding." and we all just got really quiet and were kind of like, "oh, my god. oh, my god." >> it was like somebody knocked

the wind out of me. i felt sick. and i immediately start blowing up paolo's phone. i'm screaming at him. i'm like, "what the hell is going on?" he said, "look, somebody is trying to undermine the pope." >> the former pope benedict, who was much more conservative than francis, would never approve of what francis was about to do. so paolo's explanation was that benedict had gone behind francis' back and made it so that the pope couldn't do our wedding. and that he was gonna fly to rome and get to the bottom of this, and not to worry, "i'll fix this." >> after the phone call she was absolutely frightened. she said, "oh, my god. oh, my god. what if this is all a lie?" >> and then it was just -- from there. >> she just kind of woke up from a -- from a cloud of love and romance and started asking questions. >> i called the castle where he says he's booked all these rooms, and everybody's saying they never heard of him. i called the restaurant that he

said was catering the wedding. they say they've never heard of anything. the phone calls i could've made at any second, but i didn't, because everything was supposed to be a surprise. >> benita started investigating paolo the way she would investigate her stories at work. she also hired private investigators in the u.s. and italy. >> envision an onion, and you start peeling the layers back of the onion. she basically started to uncover everything, layer by layer, piece by piece. >> i made a very strategic decision to start playing a cat and mouse game, basically. >> she did not let paolo know that she was on to 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, you know? >> so then he proceeds to tell me that they're gonna bring the pope back, the wedding's still on. okay. at the same time, things are

heating up with the scientific allegations. >> the karolinska institute was deep into a formal investigation into those claims coming from colleagues that paolo had fabricated parts of his medical research. >> i basically said, "we can't get married right now anyway. you're way too stressed. i think the best thing we do is postpone the wedding. i'll send out a note canceling it." >> 300 people already bought plane tickets and you have to somehow let them know. so she somehow created an e-mail. >> i think the title said "a sad note." it was so hard to know what to say, i mean, what do you say? everybody was so excited, i was blowing up everybody's dream, not just my dream. >> "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 as we figure out next steps." >> i was saying, "what?" if my jaw could have been on the ground, it would have been on the ground. >> oh, my god. it was so much, because the staff had to put so much work into this. how do i tell the workroom, after we've sat there and pinned every ruffle through. we went through every lace placement. we went through all this stuff for benita, who deserved all that beautiful work. and for that day, for them, my feelings were just crushed. >> also devastating for matthew was the realization that he wasn't going to be getting communion from the pope. >> paolo told my ex-partner and myself that the pope was going to grant us communion, to a same-sex couple that had been married. and that's never been anything that's been done before.

it would have been super special. it would have been probably earth-changing. and life-changing for many people. >> it was insane. it was so upsetting for all of us and we were upset for her. she was just starting to discover all sorts of truths, or i should say discover the lies he had told. and they started to pile up. one after another, after another. >> benita managed to get the vatican to verify paolo was not the pope's personal doctor. she called in a clinton contact and found out they'd never heard of paolo. and she couldn't find any evidence that the obamas knew him either. and that engagement ring he said was worth $100,000, she had it appraised, and it was worth about $1,000. and the big kicker was the italian investigator found records that paolo and his wife were still married.

the whole time he was planning this grand wedding, he legally had a wife. at this point benita was reeling. and she decided to use her non-refundable plane tickets to head to italy on what would have been her wedding weekend, to get some answers. >> i wanted to go to italy to investigate for myself. i wanted to see the places i was supposed to have been going. and i wanted to go to the house in barcelona. i knew there was something hidden in that house in barcelona. i didn't know what it was, but i knew there was a damn good reason he had never let me go to that house. and i thought, "the only way i'm gonna find out what it is, is to go there, and for him to not know that i'm going there." ♪ >> but there was a lot more to this story and it was all about to come to a head.

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i love you so much. >> her love affair with a famous surgeon was over. her over the top wedding was a fiction. no famous guests, no pope officiating. but benita was heading to europe to confront him. >> it's extraordinarily painful, and devastating beyond belief, on so many levels. >> she was a mess. she was a mess. but she was on this mission. >> she wanted to see him and look him in the eye and ask him, like, what the hell? >> but was benita the only victim? what about the ground-breaking surgeries, and all the patients

who died? >> i'm not even angry about what he did to me. i was enraged about the patients. >> nobody who does what paolo was doing in their personal life had not already done that in their professional life. >> we're going to get to the bottom of this. >> my heart is in my chest. >> this guy had falsified his qualifications. and yet was going around the world performing human experiments, masquerading about cutting-edge operations. he was a fraud, he was a conman. >> i couldn't crawl under the covers. i had to expose him. ♪ >> even though paolo and benita had called off their grand wedding, benita was pretending

to continue the relationship and had paolo believing that they would eventually still get married. >> when you add up everything, including the invitations, the dresses, the plane tickets, it's over $50,000 that i had spent personally. i'm saying to him i have no job. you know, i no longer have health benefits, i have nothing. i'm like, "you've gotta send me money. you've gotta help me out here. i don't know what i'm gonna do." >> many of the guests invited to the canceled wedding still headed to europe since they bought non-refundable plane tickets. benita went to italy too, and met up with friends once she got there. >> i flew there on what was supposed to be the wedding day by myself. i ordered myself a glass of champagne on the plane, and toasted myself at 6:00 p.m. when we were supposed to get married, and cried.

we spent a couple days in rome, and then i went into a number of places and asked questions there, and walked up right to where i was supposed to have walked in. >> i remember seeing her. i went by her hotel room, because i ended up not canceling my trip. she was a mess. she was a mess, but she was on this mission. >> one of my friends before i went said, "why don't you bring one of the dresses? you were supposed to wear them." i changed into the red dress, and we took some photos. it was emotional. somehow in putting on that red dress, it was just me telling myself, "you can do this. you can get through this. you're gonna get to the bottom of this."

>> her next stop after italy was paolo's house in barcelona. the house that only weeks ago she was planning to move to with her daughter. she was convinced this house was the missing link. ♪ >> benita and her friends nancy and leigh landed in barcelona and headed to paolo's house. benita was still playing cat and mouse with paolo. >> i was still texting with him, because i'm still playing this game with him. he's telling me that he's in russia. 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, ready to do a road trip. >> also known as a stakeout. >> i really didn't know what i

was gonna find out, but i wanted it on videotape. i had so much nervous energy. so we decided that i was gonna wear this blonde wig. >> i think deep down, she wanted to see him and look him in the eye and ask him, like, "what the hell?" >> who is this blond woman in the backseat? >> benita was super nervous on the drive to paolo's house in barcelona, and it was literally up a hill, up a mountain. we were basically just trying to keep her light-hearted and happy. there was something we were doing all along the way. we would stop all along the mountain and have a couple scenery shots with some hand gestures. you know, giving the middle finger. it was more about a sign of strength to be like, "you know what? boom." >> he lives, like, at the top of this hill, and we get to the top, and i was shaking. we drive by the house, and i'm watching behind, and all of a sudden i see somebody. so i yell to the -- to my friends, i'm like, "somebody's

there." and they jump out of the car, and they walk down the hill. >> it was paolo, and he was not in russia, like he said. >> i'm in the car, my heart is pounding when i saw him come down the steps with his dog. [ bleep ]. he's there. >> i was angry as hell. i was angry as hell. >> [ bleep ] you! you lying sack of [ bleep ]. i see you in your white shirt and your black shorts and your gray hair. [ bleep ] you. >> as i'm videotaping this i see a woman and two kids. from what i could tell he had a whole family there. >> who's this woman in barcelona? does the wife he's still legally married to in italy know about her? are these young children paolo's kids? is this another woman he duped? these are all maddening questions that benita to this day still doesn't have definitive answers to. >> two little kids, coming down the stairs. wow.

>> that was unexpected. so that kind of threw a little monkey wrench in it for all of us. >> i knew paolo had a wife. i knew about the wife in italy. the woman in barcelona is not his wife. >> my heart is in my chest, i'm gonna puke. >> up until then i had been thinking about getting out of the car. once i saw those kids, i couldn't move. >> so we ring the doorbell and he answers the door. [ speaking foreign language ] >> and it was just like, "holy crap. he answered the door." he comes out in his t-shirt and shorts, shocked as all get-out. like, "what are you doing here?" ♪ don't you tell me that i'm crazy... ♪ ♪ don't you say that i'm losing my mind. ♪ ♪ ♪ if i'm acting a little strange ♪ ♪ it's cause there's something new in my life. ♪ ♪ i'm in love... ♪

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so we ring the doorbell, and he answers the door. [ speaking foreign language ] >> i had my phone on and, you know, i didn't get a good shot of him, but i got his feet. and he's like, "why are you here?" [ speaking foreign language ] >> and we're like, "oh, we wanted to give you a gift, you know, for the wedding. for the wedding that never happened, basically." >> oh, thank you so much. >> just a little something. >> yeah. >> we know how busy you are. >> no, that's okay. that's fine. thank you so much. >> his eyes, his eyeballs, he was looking down, and they were going like -- like he was calculating. he was trying to figure out what lie he told and what he was gonna say next. and then he said, "well, where's your car?" he didn't even invite us in. and normally, you would think if somebody traveled this far, you know, you're like, "oh, can i

get you a water or coffee?" >> i see him walk back up the stairs. my friends open the car door. i'm not even crying. i'm wailing. >> [ bleep ] you! >> the last time i ever saw him was when he turned around and walked up those stairs to go to his house in barcelona. i decided to text him. i basically sent him this long text telling him that i knew he was lying about everything and he makes me sick. he writes back one word. "wow." that's all he said. "wow." i was devastated. i was shattered. >> she had quit her job. she had no money coming in. she took her daughter out of school.

it was awful. >> she honestly went pretty dark and silent. we just, you know, felt awful for her, awful for my niece. just trying to wrap our brains around everything, how -- how it could all blow up like that and how we could all be so fooled. >> it's different than any other kind of loss or breakup because in an odd way, there's nothing to grieve. because the person that i thought i was in love with didn't exist. at the same time, it's extraordinarily painful and devastating beyond belief on so many levels. >> when there's somebody that you care about, and they finally put their guard down to be loved, to have this piece of crap person come in and just be such a good con artist, it still breaks my heart to this day.

when i got back from europe, i wanted to get rid of a lot of the things that were in the house that were his. >> and the one thing i really wanted to get rid of was his piano. it just symbolized paolo. i sold the piano on craigslist. and the woman that bought the piano, we've become friends, very good friends. she likes salsa dancing. we go salsa dancing together. and we took a vacation together several months after she bought the piano. and she says -- she says, "benita, i have to tell you something." >> i said to her, "do you actually know that that piano actually has prerecorded classical music?" ♪ >> and i said, "what do you mean?" and she says, "it has prerecorded music on it. it can play itself." >> and at that point, her jaw dropped, and she looked at me, and she gave me a -- 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." ♪

>> i go back to the clip. i almost died. there's paolo playing the piano. literally he picks up his hand and he's dusting the piano and the piano's still playing. so even that was fake. >> i think in hindsight, you know, many of us sometimes wonder why we couldn't -- why we didn't see all the signs. >> how'd it get by 300 people, most of us very smart women? >> it's not like somebody was standing there waving a red flag, saying, "caution, caution, this man's a fake." the fact that he was often canceling plans at the last minute. the fact that there were always these emergency surgeries. but most of those things had plausible explanations at the time, especially in the line of work that he's in. >> i saw his six telephones. "why do you have so many telephones?" "well, i do surgeries in russia. i do surgeries in germany."

"oh, of course. it makes perfect sense." so, you know, looking back, i guess it should've maybe been a red flag. >> i think that it's much easier for somebody to con people the more successful they are. when somebody is very successful, we tend to sometimes idolize them, suspend our beliefs more, even if they tell us the most incredible things. mainly because they have such stature. >> i just can't help but wonder, had she not uncovered it, how far he would have taken it. to leave her at the altar? >> what was his end game? what was gonna happen when we all got there? >> i don't know what his end game was. i don't think he had an end game. >> so that's the million dollar question, right? why the hell do this? why do this to anybody? why did you do this to me? why would you do that to

anybody? >> she believed in the love. and then to have all of that just fall apart in the worst of ways was almost unbearable. what would you do if you had given up your life for something that you believed in and trusted? >> you were on a mission then to make sure that others knew. >> as furious as it makes me the thought that this is a man who has people's lives in his hands. this is a surgeon. people could be dying because of this man. and therefore i couldn't stay silent. i couldn't crawl under the covers. i had to expose him. ruined our meal. i spent all day trying to master my nana's recipe.

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♪ we're rolling? all right. let's go back in time. ♪ >> ready? hallelujah. >> it was complicated even from the beginning, because you were doing a documentary about him, from a professional point of view, obviously, a big no-no. >> professionally, i was so conflicted and tormented, actually. my thought process was, i'm head over heels in love. i thought i was gonna spend the rest of my life with this man and the risk was worth it. i'd been through so much and at that point in my life, i just wanted to be happy. >> i cannot stop thinking of

you. >> did you ever think, this is too good to be true? >> it's hard to answer that now. i remember feeling like i was floating on clouds, you know? i was so happy. i was giddy with happiness. >> sounds like a drug. >> yeah, i have never thought of it that way, but i think when you first fall in love, those initial moments, months, whatever they are, of being in love, it is like a drug, right? >> wow. >> here's this guy, literally prince charming, too good to be true, a vip doctor, the pope's officiating your wedding, andrea bocelli is singing, he's got this unbelievable guest list going on. you didn't -- you didn't even doubt it for one second? >> honestly, if it -- if it weren't me you know, i would have been like, "come on.

gimme a break. really? you thought the pope was marrying you? like, come on." i get that. it looks absurd. >> when you're in it, it's like a spider weaving a web. it was this very intricate, slow, meticulous, you know, weaving of this web of lies. you're so caught up in it, you don't really realize what's happening. >> i'm so happy to see you in less than 48 hours now. >> right. what gets you the most angry about what he did to you? >> my daughter. you have a little girl that just lost her dad. her dad just died. you know? and he comes riding in on his fake white horse. he's gonna save the day. he said, i am gonna take care of both of you for the rest of your lives. you do this to a little girl whose father just died? how dare you? how dare you? who the hell does that? why? he sat in front of her, and talked about the school he had

enrolled her in, and her life in barcelona. she would ask questions, and the whole time, you know it's all a lie? what the hell is wrong with you? >> i'm in the car. my heart is pounding and i saw him come down the steps with his dog. [ bleep ]. he's there. >> you're in that car. your friends are down below. you're videoing it with your phone. you never confronted paolo? >> the minute i saw those kids, i couldn't do it. i didn't want to cause a scene in front of them that would probably traumatize them. they're living this idyllic life in this beautiful house on the top of a hill in seaside spain. they have no idea what's going on. >> do you think that paolo loved you or that he targeted you? >> you are my everything. >> i don't think he really loved me. and that's crushing but now, in hindsight, i realize me getting so excited about those surprises, and being so touched, and giddy, and happy, that's -- was a high for him. >> i'm smiling, i'm happy. >> he wasn't doing the things for me. he was doing it to get my reaction, which fed his ego. >> what'd you do with the ring, by the way? >> threw it in the river.

>> seriously? you were on a mission then to make sure that others knew. >> even as furious as it makes me, what he did my daughter, this is a man who has people's lives in his hands. this is a surgeon. people could be dying because of this man, and therefore i couldn't stay silent. i couldn't crawl under the covers. i had to expose him. >> you warned the karolinska institute about paolo. what did you tell them? >> i wrote them two emails and basically just said, "you know, this man isn't who he seems to be. this man, he doesn't walk on water." >> when she wrote that email to the karolinska institute, there was much more going on in paolo's professional life than the previous allegations he'd denied to her. colleagues and other journalists were beginning to ask more questions and a lot was about to

be revealed. >> somebody tipped me off that there was a story that was kind of interesting, this affair between a news producer and her story subject, who in this case was the world's most famous surgeon, paolo macchiarini. when i pitched it to "vanity fair," i actually titled it, "the madoff of medicine." >> it just seemed crazy to me that there was this big lie perpetuated by somebody who was really at the pinnacle of their profession. i did a pretty deep dive, and i pulled every cv i could find from any conference he had ever been at, any medical institution that had ever had him, and i actually put them on a giant spreadsheet. i knew the timing didn't make sense. he would have to have been in multiple places at the same time. tenured professor at, like, four places in four different

countries, consecutively? on one of his cvs, it was written that he had been at the university of alabama birmingham, and he had received both a masters degree in biostatistics, while also doing a fellowship in thoracic surgery. and i remember calling down there. and the guy's like, " no degree in biostatistics." okay, well, cross that one off. and then he said, "yeah, no fellowship in thoracic surgery." he was clearly lying about what he had done in the united states and what medical training he had received. well, that's interesting for a guy who's going and cutting people's necks and chests open. >> paolo was already a surgeon, but why would he claim he had all these other qualifications as well? didn't he think padding his resume was risky? >> i talked to my editors, and

we started thinking, "well, let's just keep pulling on this thread." even then, i did not think that by pulling that thread, we would completely undo the sweater. >> adam also found that paolo misrepresented his status as a professor at a university in italy and that some of his italian colleagues knew about it. >> what that didn't translate into was what we might expect. this guy has falsified his qualifications, his work experience. and yet was going around the world performing human experiments, masquerading as cutting-edge operations. >> we operated her 191 times for different complications. >> she had suffered at least two strokes, lost much of her vision. >> we had to clear her throat basically, every four to six hours.

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♪ around 2011, macchiarini

became known for creating an artificial trachea. he wound up at karolinska, which of course gives out the nobel prize in medicine. paolo macchiarini was a water walker in the medical community. this is somebody who had been published in the best and most prestigious medical journals, and was literally bouncing from prestigious medical institution to prestigious medical institution. after months of looking at this, i think the conclusion was pretty obvious, and that is, this guy had falsified his qualifications, his work experience, and yet was going around the world performing human experiments masquerading as cutting edge operations. i then, of course, called karolinska. and i got a lot of hemming and

hawing, because he was a superstar. >> at this point, paolo's own colleagues at the karolinska institute had been trying to sound the alarm about him for more than a year. questions were being raised about a 24-year-old turkish woman named yesim cetir, who came to machiarrini's attention after a routine elective surgery. >> the surgery went forward in turkey. and in the course of that procedure, her trachea was nicked. the surgeons in turkey tried to repair it, and there were some complications. >> macchiarini was called in to consult, and the decision was made to operate. by this time, he had already performed four of his pioneering artificial trachea implants on patients. this is how the procedure was said to work -- the synthetic

trachea was made of plastic, the same kind of plastic used to make water bottles. and the tube was first coated with the patients' stem cells. and once implanted, the patients' own stem cells would generate new tissue and a functioning trachea. >> she got on the airplane from her home country, and flew to stockholm. got off the plane, and went to the hospital where she then was operated on and had her trachea replaced, which had absolutely catastrophic effects. in total, we operated her 191 times for different complications. >> she had suffered at least two

strokes. so she was partially blind. she couldn't walk. >> we had to clear her throat basically every four to six hours, 24 hours, 7 days a week. and doctors have described this as if you're waterboarding somebody. >> the emotional stress on the personnel who were with her, taking care of her in the icu, was just absolutely horrible. it was such a torture to see this young girl, and the suffering was horrendous. >> it was obvious that she wasn't getting better. and everything that we were doing was insufficient. >> desperately trying to save yesim, matthias and several of his colleagues started digging through the papers paolo published about his largely successful, groundbreaking surgeries.

but when they compared those papers with the patients' real life medical charts, they became convinced he was falsifying data to make the surgeries look more positive than they actually were. >> the first patient that most of paolo's science is based on was operated in 2011, according to paolo's scientific writings. yes, you could see a healthy trachea starting to develop. according to the real biopsies, there was nothing. it was dead. >> it said that he had a normal functioning airway, and that wasn't true. what they said was that the patient was doing fine and had no major complications. and that's not true. one of his lungs was completely obliterated from a chronic infection. >> the patients were not getting better. >> it was unclear whether he actually had the proper ethical approval to do these operations on patients in the first place.

>> it was beyond belief. we would have never in our wildest dreams thought that somebody would be capable of lying about so many things. but every stone we turned over, we found a new lie. >> the first thing we did was inform our boss. and then we also informed paolo macchiarini's bosses. >> we wanted to discuss this, to say, "if we don't do anything, a lot of people will die from this." >> several of paolo's colleagues at the karolinska institute wrote up a detailed 500-page complaint, accusing him of endangering the lives of his patients. >> and the response was basically nothing. >> i think they thought there'd be some justice there, or at least some intellectual curiosity. what they found was the exact opposite. >> after several months, the university did launch an investigation into the allegations, which paolo denied, but ultimately ruled that while his work didn't always meet their standards, no scientific

misconduct had occurred. paolo's contract was renewed, and his work continued. >> it was just, you know, absolutely insane. we were incredibly upset about the whole thing. it was just unbelievable. >> but back in the united states, a damning article was about to be published, as benita prepared to tell her story for the first time. >> he had no business operating. he was a fraud. he was a conman. >> everything just tumbled, you know? boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like a house of cards. >> well, the doctor should be jailed for what he did. ♪ i've got the brains,♪ ♪ you've got the looks ♪ ♪ let's make lots of money ♪ ♪ you've got the brawn ♪ ♪ i've got the brains ♪ ♪ let's make lots of... ♪ ♪ uh uh uh ♪ ♪ oohhh ♪ ♪ there's a lot of opportunities ♪

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♪ it was a cold, snowy january in stockholm when the explosive "vanity fair" magazine article came out and the dominoes started to fall for paolo. >> i wasn't sure what the reaction would be, because there were two distinct lines in this piece, the personal and the professional. a large portion of the public gravitated to the personal stuff, because it was outlandish, with the pope and with all the heads of state coming to this once in a lifetime wedding. i think for me, the story really was that the world's most famous

surgeon had gone unnoticed for so long without ever being exposed. >> weeks after the "vanity fair" article dropped, an investigative documentary about paolo aired on swedish television. >> i am working for the university, and we are trying to create new organs. frankenstein. >> the documentary raised a number of questions about paolo's techniques, and it showed footage of him admitting to an issue with a patient's artificial trachea, while still forging ahead with another surgery. the documentary also told the personal stories of patients who had died, including this young russian mother that film crews had begun following, hoping and expecting there would be a happy outcome to paolo's surgery. >> in the documentary, one gets to follow closely a young russian woman who has her life destroyed by these surgeries.

and people were just so absolutely horrified by what they saw. >> paolo claimed the synthetic trachea did not shorten this woman's life or the lives of any of his other patients, or cause their deaths, instead pointing the finger at their underlying health conditions, saying they were fatal and may have been a factor. >> it's difficult to be attacked and be on the front pages, and at least if we had done something wrong then i would understand it, but i believe we didn't. >> the whole of sweden apparently watched these programs and were outraged. there was sort of a big outcry. it was a national scandal. >> it was a radical wake-up call for the swedish people to see this. >> the reaction was, you know, "how has this guy been able to

do these operations?" >> so you had the documentary that showed the patients were in a really serious state, and you had the article in "vanity fair" which showed that his personal life was in a weird, sort of conman-like situation. and i think once you put those together, the outcry was such that the karolinska institute had to do something. >> karolinska announces that paolo macchiarini's under investigation. they're looking into his background. they're not renewing his contract. they unwind his lab. then the leadership of the karolinska institute resigns. then the leadership of the nobel prize committee in medicine resigns. and it was like a bomb went off in stockholm. >> the karolinska institute launched multiple new investigations into paolo. they eventually reversed their previous findings, and found paolo guilty of scientific misconduct. six medical papers he published about the transplants were retracted. >> all the scientific papers

were a necessity to build this house of cards, which he was then using to go globe-trotting around the world and getting the prestige and the money that -- that that entailed. >> while this resulted in paolo being dismissed, the university even cited some of the whistle-blowers, reprimanding them for their participation in some of paolo's papers. we reached out to the karolinska institute, and they said, "it is obvious that k.i.'s initial handling of this case was insufficient and inadequate on several points. it has also led to extensive reform work internally at k.i. in order to improve and clarify a number of regulations and routines." swedish prosecutors were also looking into paolo, asking, were his actions criminal? as paolo was being investigated in sweden, his patient

yesim cetir had been transferred to the u.s., in a philadelphia hospital, waiting for a lung transplant. she and her father, alone in another country, befriended another patient's family member. >> when i met her, she had one lung, she was on oxygen. she could not cough up the phlegm. it would choke her. for everything that she had been through, she was such a positive, sweet girl. she really had dreams. she was very close to going to the next level, which would've been moving out of the icu to the pulmonary floor. and then from there, to the rehab floor, it was within sight. but she -- she just couldn't. her body just couldn't handle it. >> paolo has barely spoken publicly about yesim's case, but has said that her complications were due to underlying

conditions. today, her family members are pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturers of the plastic trachea. >> yesim was a healthy, beautiful, young woman who did not need to have this happen to her. >> paolo implanted artificial tracheas in a total of eight patients. today, only one is alive. and that patient has had their synthetic trachea removed. >> do you still believe in the procedure? >> of course i believe in the technology. and, come on, the first liver transplant, the first kidney transplant, the first heart transplant. did they go all well? no. if you do something radically new, you expect complications. >> if you look at his career, he has made doctors trust him. people get carried away because they see the promise of being part of something really fantastic.

>> but nobody wanted to acknowledge it. there was too much everything. he was too big to fail in medicine, until he had lied too much in his personal life. >> everybody wants a magic solution to whatever disease is going on. science is not fast. science takes a long time. if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. >> but the story doesn't end there. swedish prosecutors have an announcement regarding their investigation. is this where our family is from? what about here? here?

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it's now been five years since paolo's web of lies began to unravel. >> to the wedding of a lifetime. >> did he destroy your life? >> no, i would never allow him to do that. >> the one thing i was really adamant with myself about is i didn't want this to make me bitter. >> i didn't want to give him the added power of having a lasting, negative impact on my life. >> paolo has never publicly commented on his relationship with benita, and didn't respond to any of our requests for comment on this story. in september, 2020, swedish prosecutors indicted paolo on charges of aggravated assault relating to three of his surgeries at karolinska university hospital, including the surgery of yesim cetir. he has not yet entered a plea, but has completely denied all the charges. a court date has yet to be set.

you have met some of the family members of some of his patients. what was that like? >> it broke my heart. it is a level of betrayal that is unfathomable, you know. and so there is -- there is a unique bond between us because we've both been betrayed by this man that we trusted. that the world trusted. you know? but in their case, someone died. >> right. >> and i -- it was hard to sit with them. it made me so angry. >> what would you like to see happen to paolo? >> i want him to go to trial. i want to go to the trial. and i want him to look around that courtroom, and see the families of the patients whose lives he 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 to be behind bars. next, are you among the

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