He said the couple, who lived together from 1990 until 1993, agreed that Burns would be not only be her confidante-companion but ``cook, body guard, security specialist and assist in financing any claims Heffner Duke may find it necessary to bring to enforce her rights against Doris Duke.. In a settlement signed Thursday by Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Renee Roth, Chandi Duke Heffner, 42, dropped claims to the $1.2-billion estate and dropped a breach-of-contract suit. A member of Heffner's family said yesterday that it is likely Chandi Duke Heffner, who legally changed her name, will accept a settlement for several million dollars. . . Like Heffner, Amar quickly became involved in the running of Duke's houses, business affairs, and charities. In November 1991, Duke had a new will written, naming Irwin Bloom and Chemical Bank as executors. 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. ", Rybak says that Lafferty got off to a good start at Duke Farms. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". And let me tell you that she gave a really nice dinner party for me at the nadir of my fortunes. For reasons I don't understand, a curtain seemed to come down. Her longest relationship was with Joey Castro, the Mexican-born jazz pianist at the Mocambo nightclub in Los Angeles, whom she met in 1950, when he was 23 and she was 38. And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "He was so attentive," Banks says. 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. I've talked to bankers who said she knew where every last nickel was. Chandi Heffner established her organization on a small scale by undertaking humanitarian work in the field. About Heffner's sister. . And when I smacked my lips in ecstasy, I found that three or four bottles would be left off at my house the next day as a gesture. Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. I remember her referring to 'we dancers.' He also instilled in her an almost reflexive inability to trust people. She told me that in the months prior to her fall from grace one of Duke's doctors was injecting her with steroids, for knee problems, and that the psychological side effects of "the substance enabled the other people to talk her into whatever they wanted. ChatGPT who? Records: 123. 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. Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. 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. During this period, Duke also plunged into three large-scale public projects. The couple lived together from 1990 until 1993. In an April 1992 codicil, she replaced them with her nephew, Walker Inman Jr., and Bernard Lafferty, and in a March 1993 codicil she made Bernard Lafferty her sole executor. She was having a real whirl." Doris Duke dumped Chandi Heffner because Heffner wanted to marry one of their bodyguards. Alec Cunningham-Reid. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. I thought she'd live to 90 or 100. (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). We would go into the kitchen, just the four of us. He could barely speak.". We took him to Newport. When Duke was 27 years old, she delivered a premature baby daughter who died just 24 hours after being born. 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. You don't have to go back. "Rubi" was also presented with a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris. He came over here, and she died. Chandi Duke Heffner net worth is $300,000. I called the California home and the other sites many times. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. . In return, Heffner claims, the twice-divorced Duke promised to "take care" of Heffner for the rest of her life. Doris wouldn't take a pill unless she really needed it. "Io sono molto contento. . Her lawyer, David Keyko, said yesterday that in. The power that this will gives Bernard Lafferty is "awesome," says one attorney. Chandi lives on the horse farm now and operates a very modest charity called the CDH Foundation, with total assets of $ 2 million. Heffner pleaded on his behalf and asked to speak to Duke, but Robinson told her that Duke was tired. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. 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. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. She's getting better.' The balance is due Wednesday. ", Glenn Scott Greenhouse, the president of the Pavillion Agency, confirmed that Lafferty's drinking became an issue at the Peltzes'. This whole thing is such a shock." Heffner claims she gave up her own life to immerse herself in being a companion to the eccentric Duke: helping to manage the Duke Farms dairy, advising her on financial matters, overseeing her "disorganized and run-down estates," selling gold deposits from her myriad Swiss bank accounts and hiring a bodyguard to protect her from kidnappers. Under the terms approved by Surrogate Renee Roth on Thursday, Chandi Gail Heffner will receive $800,000 by Monday and $65 million on Wednesday. Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. In her will, Duke requested that no funeral or memorial service be held for her. (Other sources say the meeting took place in 1985.) Talent. She said, 'There was nothing to do on that train.' In Doris's case, she had done that. He went to Sarasota High School. 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. 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. . Heres a description of Chandi (seen in the picture here on the right, with Duke and Imelda Marcos) from her website. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. "Nobody gave Doris any credit for having any taste, any intelligence, any anything," says Marion Oates Charles, known as Oatsie. ), HBOs Hit Show The Last of Us Finally Vaults Over 1 Million Viewers on Main Channel. "Elvis made whites interested in black music," she once told me, "which was very important, because race is the biggest problem we have in America.". Born Today Most Popular Celebs Most Popular Celebs Celebrity News. Banks never saw her again. Duke, who had managed to avoid almost all publicity since the Tirella scandal, stunned the world in November 1988 by putting up the $5 million bail for Imelda Marcos, whom the U.S. government had charged with racketeering. Her estate, said one family member yesterday, is valued at more than $1 billion. It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. 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. She had received another $10 million of her inheritance in 1937, and would receive at least as much in 1942. It happened on a train to California. They maintained a familial relationship until 1990 when Doris Duke disinherited Heffner. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. "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. This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. ", Others insist that Heffner's growing involvement with Burns created new tensions and was the root cause of Duke's disenchantment with her adopted daughter. 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. Years ago, she was talking about the things we all talk about nowthe environment, battered women and children, animal rights. If you want, we will give Bernard another chance, or we will get another butler. ' Through shrewd investments and her legendary parsimony, she managed to more than triple her holdings. ", Oatsie Charles had a one-word explanation: "Loneliness. . According to financial accounts shes posted on her website, she has about $700,000 parked in CDH to help India. 'Doris Duke really was the last Chinese empress, the last of a type that doesn't exist anymore. ", 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. Once a day, she meditates in her "deity room," which is filled with golden statues from India. "She out-Leona Helmsleyed Leona Helmsley," Duffy said of Heffner. I came back clean as a whistle. The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. Why doesn't she help you?' 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. James Burns, now an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, says that he and Chandi "are giving each other space for a while.". Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. "That was quite an event. You're Arden. '" She thought it was very amusing. Duke was twice divorced and had no other children. Call your pilot tonight and leave immediately and go to Los Angeles and get checked up.' Duke scoffed, "Oh, come on. ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. She has completely wired the small house on her own, and she boards horses and cows for neighbors for $15 a head per month. 'I loved her so much. 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. Marcos has said that she and Duke were friends of almost 20 years, but others say that they met in the late 1970s through Franco Rossellini. I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. People get annoyed with their kids. For many years she sang in a black gospel choir at the First Baptist Church of Nutley, New Jersey, and left its minister, the Reverend Lawrence G. Roberts, $1 million in her will. They talked constantly, and Nelson and Claudia used to go to lunches quite often with Chandi and Doris. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. In her lawsuit, Heffner claims it was she who arranged this transaction, as well as the payment of $5 million of Marcos's legal bills. "I was not aware of his drinking problem when I placed him there, but I did inform Chandi [before sending him to Doris Duke's]. "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. "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. 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. Her stage name was Sahda. This stuff was from Miss Duke's father. "Bernard got out of the hospital. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. All. I think this was the steroid thing happening. In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. In a settlement signed Thursday by Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Renee Roth, Chandi Duke Heffner, 42, dropped claims to the $1.2-billion estate and dropped a breach-of-contract suit contending that Duke reneged on a promise to support her for life, said Heffners lawyer, David Keyko. That led to pneumonia and she couldn't eat and it was on and off, on and off, for months.". When she was a cult member of Hare Krishna she got adopted by a Billionaire Heiress of a Tobacco company and Philanthropist, Doris Duke when she went to Hawaii in the 1980s. We would hear it, and we would just joke about it. According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." She was a cool lady. "Most of them didn't want to leave. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. "She designed those houses and she saw to every color," says Newport artist Richard Banks. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. But I have no real medical knowledge of what transpired in California during the spring and summer of last year.". One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. If anyone has news on Chandi from the far reaches of Hawaii, drop us a line at showbiz411@gmail.com. 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. I think she said when she came home from the hospital she began swimming out into the ocean, just swimming and swimming, not caring whether she lived or died. Nine months earlier, she had sued her adoptive mother for breach of contract, claiming that she had promised to maintain her in the Duke lifestyle for the rest of Heffner's life and to make her the principal heir of her estate. There was lack of ostentation. She was contemplating having knee replacements. We'll have a great life together. Mercedes Bass remembered Duke's coming for tea at the Carlyle Hotel a year or so earlier and introducing Heffner as "my niece." Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. . "Both of them greeted us at the door. Things escalated. I thought she was really nice, genuine.". Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. Upon her father's death in 1925, the 13-year-old Doris Duke -- known as "The Richest Girl in the World" -- inherited several hundred million dollars. Shortly after Duke's 80th birthday, in November, Nelson Seabra saw her at C. Z. Like Doris, actually." As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. . . Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. Virtually inseparable, the two women shuttled back and forth between Duke Farms, Duke's Newport estate "Rough Point" and her palatial Indo-Persian "Shangri-La" in the exclusive Diamond Head section of Oahu. ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." For Industry Professionals. WHAT'S POPULAR TODAY. This is a short video of an imaginary conversation between tobacco heiress Doris Duke and her adopted daughter Chandi Heffner, whom she met in a dance class . Tom Ford. She was taking so many pills at the end and, knowingly or not, killed herself. We'll travel together. "It was strange. She really considered herself a dancer. She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. Doris was into it, too. She told me that her parents did not approve of her lifestyle, and that they'd cut her off from everything. In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. For the Beckhams, this marriage is like sinking the best goal ever. In the proceedings, Heffner formally renounced her natural parents, certified that she was not consenting to be adopted out of financial considerations, and legally changed her name from Charlene Gail Heffner to Chandi Duke Heffner. 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. 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. Her mother was another story. 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. Later on we would sleep together and Doris would come in most mornings and sit there on the bed with us and talk. ", In February, a few weeks after Protas returned to New York with Graham, he received a phone call from Duke at three in the morning. Although polo and horse jumping are her favorite equestrian activities, Chandi Heffner currently spends the majority of her time overseeing CDHIF USA and CDHIFI. . ", She had already been planning to divorce Cromwell, but he apparently demanded a $7 million settlement. I asked Doris and she said, 'Yeah, it's fine.' We wouldn't sit in the main dining room. Steve comes about four, and he and I go up to Bernard's room. (Marcos was eventually acquitted, and returned to the Philippines.). 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