I fumbled through an introduction. Heffner said that she had asked for them almost as a joke, and that Duke was laughing when the agent for the ownerrumored to be Adnan Khashoggi or a Kuwaiti sheikhcalled back and agreed. ", 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. I came back clean as a whistle. 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. "We discussed cremation, and she said, 'Never, never, ever let anyone cremate me.' She had just been through three days of depositions in New Jersey, where her lawsuit was filed, and had two more days to go before she could fly back to Hawaii, where she lives on an isolated 300-acre horse ranch, which Duke had bought for her on the Big Island for about $1.5 million before their rupture, and where she keeps a loaded pistol beside her bed. I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. "He was devastated. The billionaire believed that Chandi was the reincarnation of her dead kid. Doris loved animals. He had been recommended by Ron Oldenburg, a Honolulu lawyer who handled immigration matters for the employees of both Doris Duke and Imelda Marcos, and hired as a bodyguard for Heffner when she was hospitalized for severe sinusitis in February 1989. Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. And I was surprised. ". Chandi got a couple of the housemen, and they brought him to the Somerville hospital." 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. There were four witnesses, including Dr. Charles Kivowitz, a fashionable Beverly Hills internist. The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. 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. When tobacco heiress Doris Duke died last October, she left a will that shocked even those who had known her best. "We were sitting on the rocks, and she said, 'I will take care of you and all of your animals for the rest of your life. Miss Duke lives in a walled 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough, and rarely attracted . . In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. "Miss Duke said to me, 'I think I may have been drugged. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. And then eventually somebody else dropped back. Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. And the whispers about Duke's last years continue. I would have to reheat it. Things escalated. 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. I really don't know what the hell was going on, frankly. . ", After Thanksgiving, as she had for five decades, Duke left for Hawaii. He also instilled in her an almost reflexive inability to trust people. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. ", Burns began working out with Duke on a regular basis. Duke." We'll travel together. In later years she did have problems with her hearing and with her legs, but nothing major. . ", Thomas Rybak maintains, "I personally believe that Chandi was pushed out by Bernard. . She has completely wired the small house on her own, and she boards horses and cows for neighbors for $15 a head per month. For the Beckhams, this marriage is like sinking the best goal ever. According to financial accounts shes posted on her website, she has about $700,000 parked in CDH to help India. Now, please understand that I'm not accusing anyone of anything.". It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. In a so-called "galimony" lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Somerville, N.J., where the heiress lives several months of the year at her 5,000-acre compound known as Duke Farms, Heffner claims she is entitled to compensation from Duke, who abruptly broke off their live-in relationship in 1991. The couple lived together from 1990 until 1993. Of course, they had a very attractive life. 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. That led to pneumonia and she couldn't eat and it was on and off, on and off, for months.". She's getting better.' ". Enzo Natale concurs: "Chandi and Bernard were twins.". It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. Doris seemed very, very happy. She was very happy doing that.". (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). On rare occasions I got Bernard. Charles became so concerned about Duke's condition that she called her and asked if Heffner had been "giving her something, I don't know what"even though Heffner had been out of the picture for a year and a half. After testy negotiations with local authorities, she finally shipped the pieces to New Jersey and installed them in her indoor tennis court. She was very into the ritualistic part of Hawaiian dance. The Untold Truth of Stephen Hawking's Son - Ti. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. "There was such a myth about Doris being a solitary person and not going out, so when she showed up somewhere, it was an event. "I couldn't quite keep up, so I was in the back of the class. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. One time we were performing at an Arab party at this catering hall in Brooklyn called the Venetian Manor, and Doris and I were partners. I was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. Most of Duke's friends hadn't had an inkling. He felt deeply grateful to Doris, as I did.". "Sometimes people are attracted to the thing they fear the most.". 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. Chandi Duke Heffner Net Worth Chandi Duke Heffner Net Worth 2022, Age, Height, Relationships, Married, Dating, Family, Wiki Biography. 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. He wanted me out of there. . By 1963 she was having Castro trailed by a private investigator. She grew up near Towson, an upper-middle-class suburb of Baltimore, and graduated from Notre Dame Prep, a private Catholic girls' school, in 1971. ", When I asked Chandi Heffner about the widespread rumors that she and Duke were lovers, she laughed and said, "Oh, right, I've heard that. After Heffner returned to Hawaii, she kept in touch with Farrah and Saretta, and in February 1983 helped them organize a Middle Eastern dance seminar in Honolulu. ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. On Thursday, October 28, 1993, Duke died at Falcon's Lair. . Some questioned Reubens sexuality at the time until in 1989 when Reubens engaged in a "mock wedding" with Chandi Heffner, the adopted daughter of tobacco heiress Doris Duke. 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. Medical Center last summer. In her will, Duke requested that no funeral or memorial service be held for her. 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. "She used to come and see me and just cry," says singer Peggy Lee, who was friendly with Tirellaand who would later employ Bernard Lafferty as a butler. 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. ", 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. The court also gave Doris title to the Fifth Avenue house, which she gave to New York University in 1957, and Rough Point, a huge Vanderbilt "cottage" in Newport. Chandi said, 'But where do I find a man?' One night at dinner, she told me, 'You know, my father always said no one would ever love me except for my money, and to be very careful.' Once a day, she meditates in her "deity room," which is filled with golden statues from India. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. It was at that juncture, Heffner claims, that Duke made the oral promise that is the basis of her breach-of-contract suit. ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." Both Duke and Heffner served as close advisers to Marcos during her trial for fraud and racketeering. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. Duke is portrayed by her adopted daughter as a lonely, paranoid recluse in need of constant care. And the person who could best illuminate Doris Duke's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, refused to talk to me. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. It doesn't mean I'll go to bed with them.". After Bloom was fired, Protas was told the loan was being reviewed. . The will provides Lafferty with an executor's fee of up to $5 million, a lifetime annuity of $500,000 a year, and commissions, which could run into the millions annually, as a trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and of three other closely related new foundations: the Doris Duke Foundation for the Preservation of Endangered Wildlife, the Doris Duke Foundation for the Preservation of New Jersey Farmland and Farm Animals, and the Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Art. The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. All; Titles; TV Episodes; Celebs; Companies; Keywords; 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. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have a baby, but she said by the third month an incredible mother instinct took over. "She looked great," Warnecke says. "Chandi works very hard for Doris. If I were Victoria Beckham, I wouldnt count on a big wedding present. ", Heffner was sitting in the Manhattan apartment of one of her lawyers on a Saturday afternoon late last December. "Both of them greeted us at the door. A member of the Duke family, who requested anonymity, said yesterday, "I think Doris will turn it over to her lawyer and say, 'Crush her.' . Duke believed that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden. Up to that point, Heffner alleges, the two women shared an extremely close relationship, enjoying not only the opulence of Duke's estates, but also trips to Russia, "fountain of youth" treatments in Romania, finding suitable maids for the ornery billionaire after she'd been "blacklisted" by employment agencies, shopping for a $25 million Boeing 737, and a shared belief that Heffner was the reincarnation of Duke's only child, a daughter who died shortly after birth in 1940. I've talked to bankers who said she knew where every last nickel was. We don't hear anything. In 1966, a few days after Duke suddenly shut down the record company she had started for Castro, he broke her jaw, according to Mansfield, and she fled to Newport with Eduardo Tirella, a handsome young set designer. I'll go to dinner with them. 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. Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. People get annoyed with their kids. She was even a buddy of Elvis Presley's. She was taking so many pills at the end and, knowingly or not, killed herself. Chandi, which means "female energy personified" in Sanskrit, was born Charlene Heffner in Baltimore on August 26, 1953, the eldest of three daughters of William Heffner, a lawyer, and his wife, "Bunny," a nurse. We took him to Newport. ", Oatsie Charles had a one-word explanation: "Loneliness. And he called from a pay phone, and I felt so sorry for this guy, I said, 'Come to Somerville.' "I looked upon Bernard as a member of the small Doris Duke family," says Donald Robinson. "She was told she has a pretty good case," the family member said. ", 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. He was the legendary Latin lover Porfirio Rubirosa, the former son-in-law of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. She's a very nice girl, really first-rate, and she will keep Doris's foundation going in the futureyou know, not a law firm but a human being. Like all of her houses, it was guarded by fierce Dobermans or German shepherds. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. "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." I thought she'd live to 90 or 100. I do feel like I'm being drugged. Until she was 10, when she started at the Brearley School, she was tutored at home. "She wasn't just one of those rich women who said, 'Restore me 60 houses.' About Heffner's sister. I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her. 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. Jay Rockefeller Net Worth. According to Heffner, Duke suffered heart palpitations in Moscow and was afraid to be alone, so for the rest of the trip they shared hotel rooms. I feel unsure of myself physically. and as we were leaving they exchanged telephone numbers. Because just as Doris was taking me to the door, there was Chandi with the caretaker. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. Duke was twice divorced and had no other children. Chandi Heffner In 1984, Doris met a woman named Chandi Heffner in Hawaii. And she was so frail. Duke left most of her money to charity and named her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of the estate. ", James Cromwell maintained that it was not his child, and friends assumed that it was Cunningham-Reid's. This whole thing is such a shock." 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. If you want, we will give Bernard another chance, or we will get another butler. ' Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. He received nothing. For some reason, Doris actually came to believe that Chandi. Doris's statements to Chandi to this effect were confirmed by [her lawyer Donald] Robinson as well, who told Chandi he had prepared the necessary documents to make provision for the disposition of Doris's estate, and that Chandi would be "totally in control. "Bernard got out of the hospital. Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. A Peltz-family friend told me that, contrary to reports in the press, "there was never any rivalry of any kind at any time between Claudia and Chandi. . His paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish immigrants. (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). Chandi called Steve Levyhe did security for Doristo find out what to do. Wait til the Beckhams Meet the Parents: Nicola Peltzs Aunt Inherited $65 Mil from Doris Duke in Infamous Adoption, Movie Release August Schedule for "Tenet," "Mulan" Will Be Scuttled as Gov. ". 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