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I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. The baby's death profoundly affected Duke, and she even hired psychics to try to. Newsom Closes California Theaters, "Dancing with the Stars" Needs a New Partner: Longtime Host Tom Bergeron Told Goodbye By ABC, Along with CoHost Erin Andrews, The Weeknd, Already on the Outs with the Grammys, Goes After Rolling Stone So They Rip Apart His New Show (Got That? I remember that most: that she seemed very happy with her life at that period. As she spoke, she leaned forward like a child who is eager to please, but when she sat back and let her lawyers take over, her face lost its animation and she seemed older, harder, drained. . Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. They maintained a familial relationship until 1990 when Doris Duke disinherited Heffner. Musks master plan for Tesla is built around sustainable energy economy, What to expect from Elon Musks third master Tesla plan, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Yet more rain expected to hit California in March. Burns served as Chandi Heffner Duke's "companion, confidant, cook, bodyguard," according to the suit, and she, in turn, agreed that they would divide "her expected inheritance." ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. Jay Rockefeller Net Worth. The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. Talent. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. She did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her. "Doris did this more for the president. I've talked to bankers who said she knew where every last nickel was. "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. Let them kill each other over it.' Ari Emanuel lets his AI alter ego open Endeavors earnings call, Sam Bankman-Fried increasingly isolated as another associate takes a plea deal, How Black Market Flea and Everyday People brought the buzz of Black life to the Beehive. Toward the end of the summer, in Newport, Heffner told Duke that she had to return to Hawaii, because she was concerned about her horses and dogs, and had planned a trip to Bali with Gordon Damon. Chandi Heffner and Doris Duke were having a lesbian affair. ". Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and . Ron Protas, the artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, says, "Doris was very shy, and never thought enough of herself, because she was so beat up emotionally by her father. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. Ferencz Soltesz [the Peltzes' majordomo] told me he's an excellent butler so long as you keep him off the bottle. It happened on a train to California. "I don't think you're supposed to use alcohol with steroids, and she was drinking sherry in the evenings." Duke Kahanamoku went in after her and saved her. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. The next day Duke's lawyer called Heffner again and informed her that Duke wanted her out, too. Much to the surprise of almost everyone who knew Duke, she named her butler of six years, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate and placed him in control of the newly created Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which is to receive almost her entire fortune. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". At a 1990 lunch at Duke Farms for Lord Carrington, then chairman of Christie's, according to Oatsie Charles, "Chandi's attitude toward Doris was awfully offhand. "Bernard got out of the hospital. Demopoulos wasn't the only one to notice a change in Duke's attitude after Heffner was out of her life. Duke scoffed, "Oh, come on. Heffner paints a sedate portrait of their life together, with Doris retiring to her music room, Chandi dealing with the employees and both women sharing vegetarian dinners. I knew from the beginning she was a son of a bitch." Records: 123. Were there . She was so distressed about losing the baby. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. According to Robert Farrah, the director of the Ibrahim Farrah company, for several months in the late 60s she took private belly-dancing classes with him every morning for two hours in New York and then flew from LaGuardia to Detroit, where she had rented a motel room near the airport and installed a piano for her afternoon singing lessons with Aretha Franklin's father. So I fixed another tray and brought it upstairs. Nelson Seabra told me, "A very close friend of Doris's said that she committed suicide. It would be the last time the paparazzi caught her, and, true to form, she slapped Rossellini for not telling her the photographers would be there. Heffner told me, "Doris used to call James 'Teach.' Heffner is also claiming her right to inherit two trusts which Buck Duke created in 1917 and 1924, on the ground that she is his lineal descendant and grandchild. . . He used to take her to Gold's Gym." And, like Heffner, after following Duke from Duke Farms to Rough Point to Falcon's Lair to Shangri La for more than six years he was suddenly given a few hours to pack his bags and leave. It will be wonderful.' That evening, I sent up dinner and Chandi came downstairs and said, 'Tom, Bernard just dropped the entire tray.' On April 5, 1993, one week after Heffner had sued her, Duke signed her last will, cutting off her adopted daughter in brutally explicit terms: I am extremely troubled by the realization that Chandi Heffner may use my 1988 adoption of her to attempt to benefit financially under the terms of either of the trusts created by my father. . Cary W. Goldstein, Burns lawyer, says Heffner Duke broke ``a very explicit deal she had with Burns, although it was never written down. Born on 1940 to James Henry Roberts Cromwell and Doris Duke. He rushed to complete what was then the most expensive house on Fifth Avenue in time for her birth at home, on November 22, 1912. One of Chandi's doctors thought that pregnancy might help her conditions, and Chandi was discussing this with Doris one evening in Newport while I was sitting there. An Irish-born orphan in his late 40s, Bernard Lafferty is recalled by guests at Duke's various houses mainly for his ponytail and gold ear stud, and for serving tea in full butler's uniform but barefoot. She was not on steroids in the latter half of 1990, and this was not a mood swing. Immediately prior to going to work for Duke, he was employed by Heffner's sister Claudia and her husband, Nelson Peltz, one of the leading takeover tycoons of the 80s. If anyone has news on Chandi from the far reaches of Hawaii, drop us a line at showbiz411@gmail.com. Finally, one of her new lawyers, Mr. Doyle, got it back on track. "Cromwell was quite nice," says Nelson Seabra, a rich Brazilian friend of Duke's. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. During this period, Duke also plunged into three large-scale public projects. ", In late 1990, he said, "I detected a growing unhappiness on Doris's part. "Buck" Duke was obsessed with his only child. Chandi Duke Heffner is known for Oh My God (2009). His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. Heffner, who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii on a ranch that Duke previously purchased for her, said in court papers that after their February 1991 breakup she learned that Duke had made changes in her will, and "the estate has not been left to Chandi as Doris had agreed." "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . Today, the museum features objects, furniture, and art selected, arranged, and used by Doris to make Rough Point a home. Mahn soon left, and in 1987 co-authored Daddy's Duchess: The Unauthorized Biography of Doris Duke. "Chandi loved animals. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. There's no question that Bernard was more than just a butler. When he died in a car crash in 1965, she took to her bed for two days. This stuff was from Miss Duke's father. "When we were together," Heffner continued, "when things were really great, Doris was in wonderful shape. You felt that she was going to break. Heffner, 40, a former belly dancer and member of the Hare Krishna, was left nothing by Duke and claimed the heiress was not of "sound mind and memory" when she rather feebly signed the new. He received nothing. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. And then eventually somebody else dropped back. . 'Doris Duke really was the last Chinese empress, the last of a type that doesn't exist anymore. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. Ron Protas told me that in February or March of last year Duke agreed to guarantee a loan of $1 million for the Martha Graham Dance School. She was even a buddy of Elvis Presley's. "They did not meet in dance class," he insists. Meanwhile, Bernard said he wasn't feeling well and went back up to his room. "It was ironic that the man Doris loved the most was the greatest gigolo of all time," says Marina Cicogna. Although she was constantly compared to Hutton from the time they both had fairy-tale coming-out parties the year after the stock market crashed, Duke always hated the comparison to the much-married Woolworth heiress, who died penniless. It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. By 1963 she was having Castro trailed by a private investigator. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. Her first husband, James R. Cromwell, called Duke "my frigidheiress" and engaged in a lengthy court battle to win a financial settlement. Chandi sued Duke's estate. The circumstances of Dukes death remain under investigation. "He wanted a settlement," says Nancy Cooke de Herrera, "but you could not get a nickel out of Doris if you came at her the wrong way." Chandi Heffner choked back tears as she talked about Doris Duke, the worldly and restless tobacco heiress who legally adopted her in 1988, when Heffner was 35 and Duke was 75, and cast her out less than three years later. . Ron Protas also told me that Duke had a fear of fire, and that when he told her about "the terrible experience" of scattering Martha Graham's ashes, Duke said, "It's never going to happen to me. Chandi Heffner choked back tears as she talked about Doris Duke, the worldly and restless tobacco heiress who legally adopted her in 1988, when Heffner was 35 and Duke was 75, and cast. Demopoulos said that Duke had mentioned her suspicions that she was being poisoned. Charlene Gail Heffner goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. She said, 'There was nothing to do on that train.' She was having a real whirl." She started taking piano lessons before she went to school, had pianos in every one of her houses as well as in the black lacquered living room of her Park Avenue penthouse, and played every afternoon. "Io sono molto contento. The couple lived together from 1990 until 1993. Chandi Duke Heffner, Self: Oh My God. "Most of them didn't want to leave. ", Dr. Demopoulos told me, "I spoke to her in early January. "Darling, the girl is out the door without a cent," Franco Rossellini trilled to a friend. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. Duke last made news in 1988, when she posted the $5.3 million bail for her close friend Imelda Marcos, the former Philippines First Lady. Chandi Duke Heffner net worth is $300,000. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. Steve comes about four, and he and I go up to Bernard's room. "He was obviously unhappy. Heffner has a sister named Charlene Gail Heffner aka Chandi Duke Heffner. The gate had obviously been left open. I suppose it was Doris's fault for never talking about what she did.". Heffner told me she had left "the farm community" and was living with Gordon Damon, a real-estate agent whose house was near Duke's Diamond Head estate. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. I said, 'Doris, get out of that house. . (Burns dismisses reports that he was once a Chippendales dancer: "Not that I haven't been asked. Los Angeles, A $150,000 executive protection dog? I was constantly arguing with Bernard . But theyve hit a snag, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in 1988, Duke left control of the bulk of her fortune to Bernard Lafferty, her butler of six years. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. ", "When one of Doris's love affairs ended, there was always great drama," says her friend Consuelo Crespi. The last words were 'Stay in touch, Harry.' ", Almost every friend of Duke's I talked to, including her many homosexual friends, told me that she had always been an avid heterosexual. Christopher Duffy, the former manager of Duke's Hawaiian estate, has told of a volatile relationship between the billionaire and Heffner, including frequent arguments and thrown crockery. Duke was twice divorced and had no other children. After testy negotiations with local authorities, she finally shipped the pieces to New Jersey and installed them in her indoor tennis court. And all of a sudden I started hearing, 'The food is cold.' No wills! We knock, we bang, we yell. I fumbled through an introduction. The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". ", Another of Duke's intimates said that the real reason her closest friends were in favor of the adoption was that "Doris had contemplated suicide, and we thought we could have some peace of mind that she wouldn't kill herself as long as Chandi was around. People get annoyed with their kids. Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored eyes. That was Doris. Duke was spending the spring, as usual, at her 2,700-acre Duke Farms, in Somerville, New Jersey. "I got a call from my sister's major-domo, Ferencz Soltesz," said Heffner, who had been living with Duke for two years at that point. ". The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. Chandi Heffner is a small, sturdy woman with thick black shoulder-length hair and bone-white skin. Then someone new entered the small Doris Duke family: James Burns, a 25-year-old former Marine and martial-arts enthusiast with a notably "buff" physique. Born Today Most Popular Celebs Most Popular Celebs Celebrity News. . These are just some of the accusations, strange rumors, and conspiracy theories that I heard concerning the last years of Doris Duke's life: Her estate is really worth at least $2 billion. and as we were leaving they exchanged telephone numbers. The next morning, the day after Valentine's Day, James Burns remembers, Duke told Heffner she had a dentist's appointment and left the house with Bernard Lafferty. Her mother was another story. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. Chandi got a couple of the housemen, and they brought him to the Somerville hospital." Today, Chandi lives on a palatial farm in. I turned and saw her on the floor. About the time Bloom was fired, Duke also abruptly left Chemical Bank and replaced her estate lawyer, William Zabel, of Schulte Roth & Zabel, with William Doyle, of the Chicago firm of Katten Muchin & Zavis. Her last will is dated April 5, 1993, was drawn up by Katten Muchin, and was signed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. They talked constantly, and Nelson and Claudia used to go to lunches quite often with Chandi and Doris. "Both of them greeted us at the door. Then she became pregnant and had a premature daughter named Arden, who lived only 24 hours. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have a baby, but she said by the third month an incredible mother instinct took over. ", They went into Duke's fabled Islamic Room"you'd think you were in the salon of Sleyman the Magnificent" and over tea and sherry they discussed the pet boar that Heffner had nursed with a baby bottle after it had been abandoned by its mother, as well as Heffner's leg problems. She has also been involved in equestrian sports and was the owner of the horse Authentic, whose rider took home the Gold Medal in show jumping for Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Last year she gave. (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). We would be four, six, eightOatsie Charles, Nuala Pell, Minnie Cushing, Lita McBean and her husband, and Sunny and me. If someone crossed them, they just put them out of their lives. "But she thought everybody was after her money. The rest of the house was dark, which was odd. Learn how your comment data is processed. Heffner had asked him to have dinner with her and Gordon Damon, and he had told her to pick him up at Duke's front gate. "She moved very well for that kind of dancingwe called it Middle Eastern, or danse orientale, but essentially it's belly dancing. Brooklyn Beckham, whos 21, has announced hes marrying Nicola Peltz, 25. ", Thomas Rybak, who had been working as Doris Duke's chef for several months when Lafferty was hired in May 1987, at a salary of about $500 a week, paints a different picture. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." Earlier this year, Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Eve Preminger removed Lafferty from that position for allegedly squandering the estates assets on lavish living but Lafferty is appealing the ruling. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. This month, Chandi Heffner's lawyers, Ben Michel of Riker, Danzig and David Keyko of Winthrop, Stimson, will file her objections to Duke's will in New York State Surrogate Court, accusing Bernard Lafferty of "undue influence and sequestering." "He was doing a lot of embroidery work for Doris. Woody Brock, who visited her with Oatsie Charles that summer, says, "It must have been 85 degrees outside, and she had on a white sweater and a roaring fire in every room. The private pilot hired to fly Duke's Boeing 737 quit his job because of Heffner, and filed a letter with the Federal Aviation Administration complaining of her unstable behavior. . Heffner also said that as next of kin she would have requested an autopsy, but she was never officially notified of Duke's death, and by the time she learned of the cremation, it was too late. sometimes I can't believe it's real. They all of a sudden just totally cut me off, and I can't believe that was Doris. He was very good at repairing old costumes and fabric. I'll go to dinner with them. "Not at all. Lee told me, "Ten or 15 years ago, I went to sing in the Versailles Room at the old Bellevue, and Bernard was the manager of the room, and we became friends. And all around him were all these liquor bottlesGrand Marnier and sherry. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. "She looked great," Warnecke says. And she was so frail. This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. She wasn't Barbara Hutton," says Marina Cicogna, who was a friend of both heiresses. "That was quite an event. Lafferty served. ", James Cromwell maintained that it was not his child, and friends assumed that it was Cunningham-Reid's. Community. With a love for all living things, Ms. Heffner maintains a U.S. ranch that takes in rescued horses, birds, donkeys, pigs, and many other animals. I feel in danger.' Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. I know a lot of bull dykes. It would be her last trip to Europe, and she also visited Poland with Brazilian grande dame Aime de Hereen. This gives her the air of philanthropy. Chandi said, 'But where do I find a man?' And last May, Surrogate Preminger accepted Miss Duke's. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. But on Nicolas mothers side, things get more interesting. Heffner pleaded on his behalf and asked to speak to Duke, but Robinson told her that Duke was tired. This should be some rehearsal dinner! Duke may have been infatuated, but friends of Tirella's told me that he was unabashedly gay. Even Imelda didn't see her.". . He wanted me out of there. He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. (After Duke's death, the trustees of her estate became defendants in this lawsuit.). Chandi Duke Heffner has 24 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis by Ilia Delio, Free Your Mind by . After repeated requests for an interview, I received the following statement through the New York public-relations firm representing him: "My duty to Miss Duke is to maintain her privacy even though she is gone.". In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. In 1987, Heffner handled the negotiations for Duke's most talked-about acquisition: two Bactrian camels, which were thrown in as a sweetener on the deal to purchase a 19-passenger Boeing 737-300 for $25 million. The tobacco heiress fortune, one of the largest in U.S. history, has been the subject of complicated legal wrangling since she died at age 80 in 1993. According to financial accounts shes posted on her website, she has about $700,000 parked in CDH to help India. Chandi Duke Heffner, age 60s, lives in Kamuela, HI. They hired him on Ferencz Soltesz's recommendation. It must end, Drugmaker Eli Lilly to slash insulin prices, Stocks slip as stubborn inflation raises rate expectations, TikTok to set default daily time limit of 60 minutes for minors, Column: While workers struggled during the pandemic, CEO pay went up, up, up, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? Through shrewd investments and her legendary parsimony, she managed to more than triple her holdings. Bernard Lafferty, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. Moreover, Heffner's legal complaint against Duke states: Doris . "Sometimes people are attracted to the thing they fear the most.". Two years later, against her mother's wishes, she married James Cromwell, who was 16 years older than she, and whose family had lost its fortune in 1929, and embarked on a two-year honeymoon through the Middle East and Asia.

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