Paolo Macchiarini was married to his real wife, Emanuela Pecchia, for around 30 years at the time he almost got married to Benita Pecchia. However, Benita discovered the truth just 2 months before their wedding.
Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife, a new Netflix documentary, explores the work of Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon who set out to bring about a revolution in regenerative medicine until it was uncovered that he lied about his studies.
He flew around the world on luxury jets, pursuing influential women by feeding them fantasies like friendships with The Pope and the former President of the United States. He claimed to have discovered an ingenious approach to treat throat conditions using plastic tracheas, which resulted in the deaths of seven of the eight individuals on whom he performed the surgery across multiple nations.
Paolo Macchiarini’s personal life is also examined as well as how his partner at the time, Benita Alexander, went on to expose him and fight for justice. Likewise, we also get to know that he had a wife and was married for around 30 years when he and Benita were about to get married in 2015. Well, let’s get to know about his real wife in detail.
Paolo Macchiarini Was Married to His Real Wife, Emanuela Pecchia, Since 1986!
Following all the accusations about his scientific misconduct, Benita Alexander got an e-mail from a friend about a news story noting that the Pope, who was supposed to host their wedding, would be in South America the same day as our wedding. After being unsatisfied with Paolo Macchiarini‘s explanation, Benita immediately hired a private investigator and discovered that he was still married to his wife.
It was later revealed that Macchiarini and his wife Emanuela Pecchia, had been married since 1986 and even had two children, a girl and a boy, together. Benita also discovered that he was living with a second woman in Barcelona.
Paolo Macchiarini got married to his Italian wife, Emanuela Pecchia, in 1986.
Image Source: Netflix
We did our research and found nothing about his wife, Emanuela. Unlike Paolo, it appears Emanuela never wanted to come to the limelight. Similarly, the whereabouts of his children, including their names and ages, have yet to be revealed.
Similarly, some reports suggest that Paolo and Emaniela’s marriage ended sometime between 2016 and 2018, however, we don’t have any strong evidence to support the claim. Now, let’s have a glimpse at how Paolo and Benita came across each other.
Riding high on international praise for his medical accomplishments, he approached Benita, an NBC producer, in February 2013 to arrange an appearance for the documentary A Leap of Faith, which was eventually released in 2014.
Paolo Macchiarini and Benita Alexander initially met while working on a documentary.
Image Source: Investigation Discovery
Alexander and Macchiarini became close and began dating, taking vacations to the Bahamas, Turkey, Mexico, Greece, and Italy, where Macchiarini even took Alexander and her daughter to meet his mother in Lecca. He informed Alexander that his divorce had been finalized and proposed to her on Christmas Day, 2013. And then the “e-mail thing” happened and Paolo’s secrets were revealed.
More About Paolo Macchiarini: How Did He Become Popular?
Paolo Macchiarini is a former regenerative medicine researcher and thoracic surgeon who has been convicted of research-related offenses in Italy and Sweden.
He rose to prominence in 2008, when he constructed a new airway for a young woman in Barcelona by chemically removing the cells from a dead donor’s windpipe and then seeding the bare scaffold with stem cells from the woman’s bone marrow.
This was a success, and it was recognized as a medical breakthrough. Macchiarini was working at one of the world’s most prominent medical universities in Sweden by 2011. He conducted the procedure in several nations and claimed to be friends with some of the world’s most famous people.
Previously regarded as a pioneer in his field, Macchiarini has been accused of unethically performing experimental surgeries, even on healthy patients, resulting in the deaths of seven of the eight patients who got one of his synergic trachea transplants.