Movies. Heffner also claims she saved the heiress's life on more than one occasion: once when Duke collapsed at her Newport estate in a "pool of blood," and a second time when Heffner recalls diving into the freezing Atlantic to save Duke from drowning. One of Heffner's lawyers says that he has 18,000 documents concerning Duke's business and legal affairs, many of which Chandi had "attended to.". Chandi Heffner - $16,758 in Political Contributions for 2016, Campaign Finance, Money, American politics, American political campaign contributions, presidential campaign contributions See $$$ From Your Zip Code $10,618,476,973 in Contributions for 2020 Election Home Money Search Top 25 Candidates Election News About Data Updated on 7/11/2020 When he first met Peggy Lee (with whom he worked on and off for 10 years), it was while he was manager of the Versailles Room of the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Donald Robinson then called and informed Heffner that Duke wanted Burns out of the house. "Cromwell was quite nice," says Nelson Seabra, a rich Brazilian friend of Duke's. LOS ANGELES (AP) _ An ex-Marine sued the adopted daughter of late tobacco heiress Doris Duke for $33 million in palimony, claiming he gave up three years of his life to encourage her friendship with Duke. 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. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have a baby, but she said by the third month an incredible mother instinct took over. Kids get annoyed with their parents.". [16] During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. Suspicion reigned, of course, that he was trying to snatch a valuable work of art from the estate, but a Christie's valuation put a price tag of $450 on it. . This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. It would be her last trip to Europe, and she also visited Poland with Brazilian grande dame Aime de Hereen. Doris Duke dumped Chandi Heffner because Heffner wanted to marry one of their bodyguards. 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." Newport police declared it an accident, and her friends still swear that it was. We used to sit in the sunroom with these tiny bits of broken porcelain and she'd say, 'It's got to be fixed, and I can do it better than most people.' Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. sometimes I can't believe it's real. Like all of her houses, it was guarded by fierce Dobermans or German shepherds. In Doris's case, she had done that. Chandi got a couple of the housemen, and they brought him to the Somerville hospital." "Both of them greeted us at the door. After Tirella's death, she seemed consumed with the idea of actually becoming a performer. [51], When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million,[52] with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year. "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]. The rest of the house was dark, which was odd. "Chandi works very hard for Doris. "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. In later years she did have problems with her hearing and with her legs, but nothing major. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. Doris was into it, too. Banks never saw her again. 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. We don't hear anything. ", 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. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. She's getting better.' 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. [64], In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. I think this was the steroid thing happening. An autopsy has been carried out, and while they await the toxicology results, which could take anything from two weeks to 90 days, everything so far points to death from natural causes. "She looked great," Warnecke says. Like Doris, actually." She continued to give him money, and friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended. And along about March, I sent flowers and candy to her California home. 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. On an employment application Lafferty filled out for the Pavillion Agency in New York in September 1986, he said he had worked at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia from 1972 to 1983 and at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City from 1983 to 1985. She said, 'There was nothing to do on that train.' She was like a flower child, even though the era was over. She also told me that Duke was much more taken with Ferdinand Marcos, who was gravely ill in Honolulu, than she was with his wife. Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. As founder and president of the Chandi D. Heffner International Foundation (CDHIF) and its counterpart foundation in India (CDHIFI), Chandi Heffner has directed numerous projects to ease suffering and improve the condition of hundreds of thousands of people in India. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. And then Chandi said something that took me aback: 'Bobby, I can't understand why you have a friend like that and yet you're struggling to have a dance publication. Robinson would not comment on whether the adoption meant Miss Hefner would be the heiress of Miss Duke, who has been married twice and has no other children. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". She had episodes of pneumonia, she had clots in her veins, and some of those clots may have traveled to her lungs. Quite suddenly, early in 1991, Doris called me in distress from Hawaii and said that she was leaving in an urgent way for California and she had become fearful of Chandi. He could barely speak.". 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 . I came back clean as a whistle. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. For reasons I don't understand, a curtain seemed to come down. "She was told she has a pretty good case," the family member said. Adam Smith followed a century later with direct consideration of the . "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.". . And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. ), By then the center of her social life was Franco Rossellini, the extremely amusing and gay Italian movie producer, whom she had met about 1975. She also lent another $5 million to Marcos to cover her legal expenses (and asked for it back in her will). One evening Steve Levy said that Miss Duke wanted him to administer a urine test on me. After she returned to Newport later that month, Banks invited her to a concert, but she forgot the date. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. It has nothing to do whatsoever with economic advantage. Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands Marketplace Lead, Benelux Uber Sep 2019 - Jun 2020 10 months. "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." [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. 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. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. ", Heffner was with Gary McElroy, with whom she was then living on a communal farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. 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. Even the doctor who subsequently challenged the will said in 1994: "He always seemed to be there whenever Doris needed him. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. And all of a sudden I started hearing, 'The food is cold.' ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. 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. Also at Duke Farms, she constructed a series of 11 greenhouses containing elaborate recreations of English, French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and other gardens, which she opened to the public. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Duke's lawyers. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish immigrants. Under Chandi Heffner's leadership, CDHIF provides funding and support to a number of animal programs that benefit work . [52] Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Amsterdam Area, Netherlands Investment Banking Associate Morgan Stanley Jul 2016 - Jun 2019 3 years. ". Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored eyes. [36], Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. The gossip at Mortimer's was that Duke was furious with him for talking to Stephanie Mansfield. 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. I asked Doris and she said, 'Yeah, it's fine.' 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. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. The tragic young teenager who was orphaned by the age of 17 and went to live with an aunt in Philadelphia was only 51; but the intervening 34 years had carried him several lifetimes away from his birthplace in Creeslough, Co Donegal. . But he fought back and won on appeal. He named both his private Pullman car and his 80-foot yacht after her, and surrounded her with bodyguards. 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. Then one day in June, Miss Duke called me and said, 'Thomas, have you seen Bernard? She flew Mrs. Marcos from Hawaii to New York in her lavish private jet to face federal racketeering charges. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. [65] Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. "He was so attentive," Banks says. Lafferty served. Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and. Because MyLife only collects this data and does not create it, we cannot fully guarantee its accuracy. [1] Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.[2]. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. He felt deeply grateful to Doris, as I did.". Here she created Duke Gardens, a 60,000-square-foot (5,600m2) public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America. 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. . Some of the traditional handmade Indian products that are in danger of disappearing are pottery, silk and cotton embroidery, utensils and hardware made from raw iron, wood carvings, book bindings, and horse-drawn carts. Doris Duke was murdered. Nor - in spite of the spot that he was holding on the wall for it - did he ever get the $450 dollar painting. Chandi has taken control of this Reputation Report to make themselves look good, check back for comments that they might have left on some sections. "I couldn't quite keep up, so I was in the back of the class. ", Oatsie Charles had a one-word explanation: "Loneliness. 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. According to the 1993 Forbes Four Hundred list, Doris Duke was the 18th-richest woman in America, not far behind cosmetics billionairess Este Lauder. Irwin Bloom had made the arrangements and then Duke called Protas from Los Angeles and joked, ''For God's sake, try to pay it back," Protas recalled. 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. 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. 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. According to financial accounts shes posted on her website, she has about $700,000 parked in CDH to help India. [67] The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. And Doris said, 'How about the one next to you?' She died much as she lived--in secrecy, loneliness and on the edge of scandal", "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead", "James B. Duke Wills Bulk of $100,000,000 to Widow and Child", "Billionaire Twins Abused Like Slaves by Dad", "The Duke Family Fortune: Depleted By Lavish, Addiction-Fueled Spending? ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. "No cane. The agreement removed the heiresss former butler, Bernard Lafferty, as co-executor of the estate in return for $4.5 million and $500,000 a year for life. He's standing on a street corner in New York right now and needs a place to go. And so I decidedthe biggest mistake of my 41 yearsto give this son of a bitch a second chance . I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. While Lafferty was hospitalized, Rybak says, "Doris said to me, 'Tom, we are going to leave this up to you. Before moving to Chandi's current city of New York, NY, Chandi lived in Kamuela HI and Kawaihae HI. In any case, their friendship ended in tragedy that October, when Duke ran him over as he was opening the gate of Rough Point. Heffner almost broke down again. 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. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. 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.". The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. 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. 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. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. . "She designed those houses and she saw to every color," says Newport artist Richard Banks. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. ", Dr. Demopoulos told me, "I spoke to her in early January. ", 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. Sources at Duke's estates, however, portrayed Heffner in a different light. Keyko said that $800,000 was paid to Heffner on Friday. The billionaire believed that Chandi was the reincarnation of her dead kid. If you want, we will give Bernard another chance, or we will get another butler. ' "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. He used to take her to Gold's Gym." 'I loved her so much. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. Phyllis Saretta says, "Chandi told me that her sister had a butler and a chauffeur and the whole thing. His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. She was very happy doing that.". I have come to the realization that her primary motive was financial gain. Both Heffner and her lawyers emphatically deny that Nelson Peltz is financing Heffner's legal efforts. It was perhaps her last romantic affair, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. [64], Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will, although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. The circumstances of Dukes death remain under investigation. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. . 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. ", "I'm crazy about Bernard," says Oatsie Charles. Doris seemed very, very happy. I'll go to dinner with them. Medical Center last summer. Contribution Totals: Download all contribution records for this person . ", "Doris Duke had it all -- and now her foundation is giving a lot back", "Doris Duke Leaves $1 billion to a New Charitable Foundation", "Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)", "The Beatles' magical mystery tour of India", "The Myth & Mystique of Doris Duke's Inner Circle", "Inventory of the Doris Duke Foundation Records, 1934-2009 (Duke University Libraries)", "Sarandon to Play World's Richest Little Girl", "Top Three Inheritance Disputes LegalZoom.com", "Deal Reached over the Estate of Doris Duke", "Bernard Lafferty the Butler for Doris Dukes Dies at 51", "Famed Duke Gardens To Become Ambitious 'Green' Lab", "Sale of Rare Carpet to Benefit Newport Restoration Foundation Collections Fund", "The Darkness of Riches: Born Billionaires but Starved, Neglected and Locked in a Basement", "The Eccentric Heiress Who Lived Inside an Epic Monument To Islamic Art", Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries), James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner, Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame Women Inductees, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doris_Duke&oldid=1150842887, Articles with dead external links from January 2017, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from May 2021, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from March 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published. "I don't think you're supposed to use alcohol with steroids, and she was drinking sherry in the evenings." I remember that most: that she seemed very happy with her life at that period. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death. He also said that she had lent $600,000 for his company, Health Maintenance Programs, Inc., in 1989; the loan is to be converted into stock, according to the will. 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. . Through shrewd investments and her legendary parsimony, she managed to more than triple her holdings. 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. A Hare Krishna, sort of, Chandi went to Hawaii in the late 1980s and inveigled herself into the life of another billionaire, Doris Duke, the richest woman in the world. Chandi Heffner was "planted" on Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos. Contrary to Heffner's version of events, he told me that he had prescribed anabolic steroids for Duke for her knee problems in late 1989 or early 1990. Years ago, she was talking about the things we all talk about nowthe environment, battered women and children, animal rights. 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. ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. This was not a frivolous woman, either. [8] Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. "That's what the picture was worth," said one of Lafferty's lawyers, "but here you had maybe 15 lawyers arguing over it and running up the bills.". In the few years before her death in 1993, when she featured in the Forbes Four Hundred as the 18th richest woman in America, she revised her will no fewer than five times, each time killing off the multi million dollar dreams of yet another set of distraught, would be legatees and lawyers. The press decided she had become an eccentric recluse. "Her legs were almost starting to atrophy from lack of exercise." Chandi Duke Heffner photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. The gate had obviously been left open. Guest introduced Duke to Leon Amar, a 30-year-old Moroccan decorator. He always seemed to be there whenever she needed him. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. In her will, Duke requested that no funeral or memorial service be held for her. [5] The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $927 million to $1.545 billion in 2021),[6] the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.[7]. Shes the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz. ", 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. 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. Guest's in Old Westbury: "She came by helicopter. That's not the Doris I knew. In addition to providing medical care, food, and veterinary care, Ms. Heffner . Apart from the awesome power flowing from control of the Foundation, Lafferty also stood to earn an executor's fee of up to $5 million, a lifetime annuity of $500,000 a year and annual commissions which could run into millions. As a young girl, she wrote him love notes, which he pored over again and again. Miss Duke lives in a walled 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough, and rarely attracted publicity in recent years until she posted bail for former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos a week ago. ", Glenn Scott Greenhouse, the president of the Pavillion Agency, confirmed that Lafferty's drinking became an issue at the Peltzes'. I thought she'd live to 90 or 100. If someone crossed them, they just put them out of their lives. "And believe me, she didn't get to $1.3 billion without working at it. "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. I was constantly arguing with Bernard . When I go I'll be eaten by the sharks.". Menu. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. 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.' ", 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.
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