It doesn't mean I'll go to bed with them.". ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. The headboard of his bed was carved from the door of an old Vanderbilt mansion. According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Congressional investigators blame airlines for most flight cancellations, First Republic Bank stock plunges to record low as rescue plan proves elusive, Fed faults Silicon Valley Bank execs and itself in bank failure, Public tirades, recall threats as Shasta County roils from decision to dump voting machines. She has completely wired the small house on her own, and she boards horses and cows for neighbors for $15 a head per month. [Enlarged version of Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung, Valsznsgszmts and Calcul des probabilits. ", James Cromwell maintained that it was not his child, and friends assumed that it was Cunningham-Reid's. Tirella's family sued Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. And along about March, I sent flowers and candy to her California home. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. To this day he maintains, "A lot of injustice was done to me. The reason it didn't last long was she didn't want them. This was an adoption on both sides of love, deep affection, respect, companionship and common interest, he said. 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. Duke was the only child of J.B. "Buck" Duke, who founded the American Tobacco Co. and later endowed Duke University in Durham, N.C. . Nelson Seabra told me, "A very close friend of Doris's said that she committed suicide. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. 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. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. The next day I got a phone call from Doris to thank me. A stingy southern belle, Nanaline Holt Inman was a widow with one son when she married Buck Duke in 1907. Alan Deutschman, Bob Colacello, Steven Daly, 5 more Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. 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. Duke was spending the spring, as usual, at her 2,700-acre Duke Farms, in Somerville, New Jersey. Chandi maintains relationships with many people -- family, friends, associates, & neighbors -- including Tomoko Hasejima, Kumiko Takata, Tadashi Kageyama, Masakatsu Ogata and Maki Ogata. Miss Hefner is not related to Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, a spokesman at the company told The Courier-News of Bridgewater. The couple lived together from 1990 until 1993. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Lafferty was accused of conspiring to kill his terminally ill employer with morphine. Currently, Chandi is single. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. Miss Duke, 75, adopted Chandi Hefner, who owns ''extensive property in Hawaii,'' and has been living with her for three years, attorney Donald A. Robinson said. Chandi has taken control of this Reputation Profile & made sections private. In any case, their friendship ended in tragedy that October, when Duke ran him over as he was opening the gate of Rough Point. Keyko said that $800,000 was paid to Heffner on Friday. also assured Chandi that she would be the heir to Doris's estate in return for Chandi devoting herself to Doris and to the running of her affairs. According to a half-page biography released by Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, Bernard Lafferty was born in Ireland in 1945 and immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago. Talent. He was later retried and acquitted. Perhaps the judge disapproved of these and his expeditions to exotic gay clubs, dressed to dazzle in designer gowns that once belonged to Doris. Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. Chandi Heffner's U.S. organization is a charitable foundation that financially supports the work of CDHIFI, which provides free medical treatment and other assistance to families in poor, rural communities in India, along with veterinary care for their farm animals and pets. 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. At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. 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. Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. But neither was he the one dimensional cartoon character - a malevolent, greedy, tall tale spinning, illiterate, possibly murderous drunk - as portrayed by much of the media. We don't hear anything. 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. "Bernard got out of the hospital. 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. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. London, United Kingdom . American billionaire heiress, philanthropist, and socialite (19121993), a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street, "A Tale of Money and Mystery: Billionaire tobacco heiress Doris Duke's death has spawned a wealth of disputes. 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. [11] She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". His breath almost knocked me off my feet.' Doris told Chandi that she was happy about her having a man in her life. ", Like many of her friends, Protas is unclear about when Duke went into the hospital for the operations on her knees, or when she came out. Charlene Gail Heffner goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. At 250lb and living a sedentary existence, he was always a candidate for a heart attack, and the coroner's office in Los Angeles says no foul play is suspected. ", Donald Robinson, who represented Duke in the Marcos matter, recalls going out to Duke Farms after Imelda Marcos posted bail in New York: "The group was Imelda and her lawyer, one of her daughters, Franco Rossellini, his friend Enzo Natale, Chandi, and Doris. Donald Robinson then called and informed Heffner that Duke wanted Burns out of the house. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. Nanaline worshiped Society, and she disapproved of her tall, awkward, studious daughter. Tobacco heiress Doris Duke had hoped to preclude Chandi Heffner, adopted as an adult (at age 35) by Miss Duke, from sharing in her estate and certain family trusts. "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. James Burns, 32, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, claimed Chandi Gail Heffner Duke owes him half of the $66 million she was awarded after Duke die in 1988. In 1925, at the age of 13, she inherited an estimated $100 million in trusts from her father, James Buchanan Duke, a coarse but brilliant self-made man who founded the American Tobacco Company and the Duke Power Company, and who endowed Trinity College in North Carolina with millions, reportedly on the condition it change its name to Duke University. He spent many weekends at a guesthouse at Duke Farms and was her escort when she went into the city for lunches and dinners with friends such as Diana Vreeland, Nan Kempner, and Kenneth Jay Lane. He named both his private Pullman car and his 80-foot yacht after her, and surrounded her with bodyguards. Two years later she bought Falcon's Lair, the Beverly Hills house where Rudolph Valentino once lived. [55], In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. ", A few days before I interviewed Heffner, an item had appeared in Cindy Adams's gossip column: Robert Ibrahim Farrah, an instructor of Middle Eastern dance, who says he introduced Heffner to Duke in 1984, claimed that Duke had come to fear Heffner. 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. For court depositions by his foes - and there were many foes making many depositions in recent years - Bernard stepped out defiantly in five to 50 carat diamonds. The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. I fumbled through an introduction. He could barely speak.". "Most of them didn't want to leave. ", Also placing herself firmly among his supporters was one Marion Oates (Oatsie) Charles Doris Duke's long time summer neighbour in Rhode Island, and the only other trustee named in the final will: "I'm crazy about Bernard," she said. "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]. [41][42][43] They divorced in 1943. Doris was into it, too. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. "It was really sad," Heffner said, "because Martha arrived and Doris wouldn't go see her. I tried to see her the following week when I was in California, and there were about a dozen times since then that I called when I made trips to California, where I would simply get a response on the other end of the line that was: 'Miss Duke is doing well. By any standard, Bernard Lafferty was not a conventional choice to oversee a billion dollar legacy. "Nobody gave Doris any credit for having any taste, any intelligence, any anything," says Marion Oates Charles, known as Oatsie. New York magazine reported after her death that she had a knee operation at U.C.L.A. For access to this information, contact 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. In fact, it was Chandi Heffner who hired Bernard Lafferty for Doris Duke, in 1987. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion. When Doris died, there was a well publicized estate fight between Chandi and Doriss ex butler, Bernard Lafferty. I said, 'Doris, do it, I think it's a good thing.' And Nicolas first cousin on her fathers side is the great New York broadcaster and filmmaker Perri Peltz, whose father was Nelsons older brother. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, This page was last edited on 20 April 2023, at 12:29. It has nothing to do whatsoever with economic advantage. Love. One afternoon in February, the architect John Warnecke went to Shangri La for tea. Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. 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. and I finally quit just before Labor Day. Duke." ", 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. Chandi Heffner told me that Duke confided the truth to her: "It wasn't Cromwell's, and it wasn't her lover Alec's. After she returned to Newport later that month, Banks invited her to a concert, but she forgot the date. Reports this week snobbishly depict a man who "wormed" his way "upstairs" from his "downstairs" job, a "rogue with the champagne touch who was never destined for that way of living". 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. Duke was twice divorced and had no other children. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. ", In either March or April, Demopoulos said, he received a call from Irwin Bloom, who told him that he had been fired by Duke. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation. [45], On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat[clarification needed] from the Dominican Republic. [35], In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. This gives her the air of philanthropy. When he died in a car crash in 1965, she took to her bed for two days. I have come to the realization that her primary motive was financial gain. [23], Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. I knew from the beginning she was a son of a bitch." So I fixed another tray and brought it upstairs. But the same enemies were sad, embittered creatures to begin with. 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.' [58][36][51] Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Peggy Lee told me that she had spoken to Duke on the phone several times in her last months, and that Duke had made a donation to an AIDS charity that Lee is involved with. The enemies then took him to court (provoking his denunciation by the unsympathetic judge), ostensibly to stop Lafferty spending Duke's fortune on himself, and won. . I would have to reheat it. James Burns, 32, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, claimed Chandi Gail Heffner Duke owes him half of the $66 million she was awarded after Duke die in 1988. Medical Center last summer. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. Because of the legal wrangling, not a penny of Duke's bequest has gone to charity so far, though the total amount billed by lawyers in the challenges has reached $50 million. The following February, Farrah repeated the seminar, and it was apparently then that Chandi Heffner entered Doris Duke's life. [20] Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy[54] over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. Phyllis Saretta told me that Duke performed with the Farrah company four or five times, wearing a long black wig. I suppose it was Doris's fault for never talking about what she did.". The rest of the house was dark, which was odd. She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. [22] She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. I think she did it to make James jealous. When Doris was only 14, she successfully sued her mother to stop her from selling Duke Farms, the estate her father had created out of New Jersey flatlands, including a 30-room mansion with an indoor pool and indoor tennis courts, artificial lakes, and man-made hillocks. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. [36], In Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. ", "What struck me about Chandi was her hairit came all the way down below her waist," says Phyllis Saretta of her first meeting with Chandi Heffner. . A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. If I were Victoria Beckham, I wouldnt count on a big wedding present. The nonprofit now assists more than 80,000 patients and 50,000 . In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. [citation needed], Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. The heiress and onetime Harper's Bazaar contributor led a dramatic life she sued her mother at 14, seduced countless men, and accidentally killed a close friend. He wanted me out of there. Of course, many of the sources for these allegations are people who were left out of the will, or cut out of the will, or people who hope to eventually receive grants from the Duke foundations. It's not true. Chandi Duke Heffner, the 39-year-old former belly dancer and Hare Krishna devotee who was legally adopted by American Tobacco Co. heiress Doris Duke in 1988, now claims the reclusive 80-year-old billionaire reneged on her promise to make Heffner the sole beneficiary of her estate. She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave. Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. This was at 11 in the morning. ", "I was not involved. I almost feel . Phyllis Saretta says, "Chandi told me that her sister had a butler and a chauffeur and the whole thing. He also instilled in her an almost reflexive inability to trust people. Chandi Heffner is a small, sturdy woman with thick black shoulder-length hair and bone-white skin, Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored . [36], After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. 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. Her Newport artist pal Richard Banks said that that summer "Doris decided to do the whole social thing and she loved it. 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. Mercedes Bass remembered Duke's coming for tea at the Carlyle Hotel a year or so earlier and introducing Heffner as "my niece." Jun 2020 - Sep 2021 1 year 4 months. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. I feel in danger.' For access to this information, contact (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). Steve said, 'Your food has changed so suddenly Miss Duke thinks you must be on drugs.' Sources at Duke's estates, however, portrayed Heffner in a different light. ", Donald Robinson, a New Jersey lawyer who had worked closely with Duke since the early 70s, will not comment about the lawsuit, but he speaks glowingly of Heffner's abilities. 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. She's getting better.' "He was so attentive," Banks says. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Duke's lawyers. Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot (93m2) veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams;[32] and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs. And he had quite a history. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.[60]. "It was unbelievable how hard she worked. A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. . Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology. 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. . She was like a flower child, even though the era was over. They didn't. Ms. Heffner also strives to encourage the continued production of handicrafts, and ensures that there is a market for them by purchasing these products from their makers. Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. There's no question that Bernard was more than just a butler. 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.' And I was surprised. Demopoulos wasn't the only one to notice a change in Duke's attitude after Heffner was out of her life. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. Paul and his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, when he was nine years old. He made a comment that Doris had a fair number of complications as a result of the surgery. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. The adoption proceeding took place Thursday before state Judge Wilfred Diana and went into effect immediately. "She got us our first booking, in that black church in New Jersey. . I do feel like I'm being drugged. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. By 1963 she was having Castro trailed by a private investigator. Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. She had received another $10 million of her inheritance in 1937, and would receive at least as much in 1942. 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. 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. Only five function as museums. [33][additional citation(s) needed]. 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. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. I think this was the steroid thing happening. I usually got one of the help. Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's 2,700-acre (11km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. ". The last living heirs to Duke's fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew through a half-brother on her mother's side. She was very happy doing that.". MyLife is NOT a Consumer Reporting Agency - You may NOT use this information to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, tenancy or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. That led to pneumonia and she couldn't eat and it was on and off, on and off, for months.". People get annoyed with their kids. Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. Another time, at a college in upstate New York, Bobby [Farrah] didn't have her dancehe had her completely veiled, and she sat on the stage and played finger cymbals. [21] Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. But Lafferty was always a one off, one of life's great eccentrics, and he was certainly more than a jumped up waiter whose salary "never topped $200". Enzo Natale concurs: "Chandi and Bernard were twins.". She told me during a break that she had studied reiki, a Japanese healing rite, and she said, 'Maybe I could help you with your knee.' I asked Doris and she said, 'Yeah, it's fine.' "[72] Subsequently, the foundations have sold some assets[73] and have closed Duke Gardens. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. 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. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. . He was very good at repairing old costumes and fabric. On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. "The butler word they like," Lafferty lamented at the time, "because the butler always did it.

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