. "People always think that if you can have 200 people to dine at home without moving the chairs around and you don't, you must be very sad," says Claus von Blow. ", 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. So we went into the room, and Bernard was buck naked, bent over a chair, passed out. Chandi Heffner and Doris Duke were having a lesbian affair. Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. Chandi was into environmental concerns. . In the last year of Duke's life, Bernard Lafferty persuaded her to drop her physician of 12 years, her accountant, her bankers, and the lawyer who drew up her next-to-last will. Paul and his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, when he was nine years old. "It was ironic that the man Doris loved the most was the greatest gigolo of all time," says Marina Cicogna. . ", 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. . "It was really sad," Heffner said, "because Martha arrived and Doris wouldn't go see her. . "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. Chandi Duke Heffner has 24 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis by Ilia Delio, Free Your Mind by . She also asked to be buried at sea. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. . Heres a description of Chandi (seen in the picture here on the right, with Duke and Imelda Marcos) from her website. Banks never saw her again. (Marcos was eventually acquitted, and returned to the Philippines.). Movies. Miss Duke's will went on: "I am extremely troubled by the realization that Chandi Heffner may use my 1988 adoption of her (when she was 35 years old) to attempt to benefit financially under the . "Darling, the girl is out the door without a cent," Franco Rossellini trilled to a friend. They maintained a familial relationship until 1990 when Doris Duke disinherited Heffner. She said, 'I'm very frightened. 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. "There was a rumor that she did it deliberately. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. We would hear it, and we would just joke about it. How do we get rid of her? (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). 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. ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. The Untold Truth of Stephen Hawking's Son - Ti. . Heffner takes credit for everything from improving the dairy herd at Duke Farms to arranging the sale of Duke's gold deposits in Switzerland. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. ", Robert Farrah agrees: "Doris Duke was not this elusive reclusive. It will be wonderful.' . She was not on steroids in the latter half of 1990, and this was not a mood swing. They had done the whole kitchen togetherthe carpentry, everything. Chandi Heffner Duke passed away on 1940. Doris was into it, too. ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. I came back clean as a whistle. She thought it was very amusing. Column: 15 minutes of fame flies by. 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 Duke Heffner net worth is $300,000. 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. Steve comes about four, and he and I go up to Bernard's room. She got right up like a trouper and fell right down again. He came over here, and she died. I was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. View their profile including current address, phone number 808-882-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. "She looked great," Warnecke says. "It was strange. . "It was shocking," Heffner told me. Ron Protas told me that in February or March of last year Duke agreed to guarantee a loan of $1 million for the Martha Graham Dance School. He was born on August 27, 1952, in Peekskill, New York, USA, as Paul Rubenfeld. Call your pilot tonight and leave immediately and go to Los Angeles and get checked up.' Ari Emanuel lets his AI alter ego open Endeavors earnings call, Sam Bankman-Fried increasingly isolated as another associate takes a plea deal, How Black Market Flea and Everyday People brought the buzz of Black life to the Beehive. (After Duke's death, the trustees of her estate became defendants in this lawsuit.). He was going to A. and I finally quit just before Labor Day. There was a little alcove under the stairs, and the food would be nice but ordinary. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. Until she was 10, when she started at the Brearley School, she was tutored at home. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. 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. I think she did it to make James jealous. Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. "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. You're Arden. '" But on Nicolas mothers side, things get more interesting. 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 eyes, She was wearing a dark-blue Paradise on show: Inside the exotic retreat of tobacco More Than $65 Million For Adopted Duke Daughter BILLIONAIRE'S HEIR OUT OF PLACE Heffner told me that "even back in high school I began kind of a quest to see if there was more to life," and that after a trip around the world, she ended up in Hawaii, meditating, surfing, and exercising polo ponies. 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. While Lafferty was hospitalized, Rybak says, "Doris said to me, 'Tom, we are going to leave this up to you. "I don't think you're supposed to use alcohol with steroids, and she was drinking sherry in the evenings." 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. 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 those servants was the future executor of Doris Duke's estate. "Chandi loved animals. (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). 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. That fall, she attended a tribute to Sophia Loren at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a fancy party afterward at Tatou, with Imelda Marcos, Rossellini, Natale, and Lafferty, who wore a ski sweater. "They did not meet in dance class," he insists. I was constantly arguing with Bernard . Heffner pleaded on his behalf and asked to speak to Duke, but Robinson told her that Duke was tired. Doris loved it. She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. A dedicated philanthropist, Chandi Heffner is the founder and President of CDHIFI a charitable foundation that sponsors medical, veterinary and humanitarian assistance to rural regions around the . I suspected that it was Bernard doing thiskeeping the food cold. 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. . 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.' The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". So did Imelda. And he had quite a history. Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. 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. I do feel like I'm being drugged. She clapped her hands in glee. Seemed. 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. . Duke died last October, leaving an estate reported to be between $750 million and $1.3 billion and lengthy obituaries which focused on her husbands and lovers, her houses in New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Hawaii, her collections of Oriental and Islamic art, her $5 million bailout of Imelda Marcos, and her perplexing relationship with Chandi Heffner. The baby's death profoundly affected Duke, and she even hired psychics to try to. "And believe me, she didn't get to $1.3 billion without working at it. ", Dr. Demopoulos told me, "I spoke to her in early January. Youth," says Phyllis Saretta, an instructor with the Ibrahim Farrah Near East Dance Group, which Duke funded and danced with in the early 1970s. She was like a flower child, even though the era was over. This was at 11 in the morning. That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." If I were Victoria Beckham, I wouldnt count on a big wedding present. Chandi Heffner was "planted" on Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos. 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.". James Burns, now an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, says that he and Chandi "are giving each other space for a while.". There was a deadly side to Doris. "Her legs were almost starting to atrophy from lack of exercise." 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. Chandi lives on the horse farm now and operates a very modest charity called the CDH Foundation, with total assets of $ 2 million. "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. I usually got one of the help. On October 6, it was announced that Duke had made a donation of $1 million to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Lafferty had been working for Nelson and Claudia Peltz for the previous seven months, and Rybak says, "The Peltzes put him in a 28-day program. Mahn soon left, and in 1987 co-authored Daddy's Duchess: The Unauthorized Biography of Doris Duke. I feel in danger.' Doris wouldn't take a pill unless she really needed it. 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. Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in. In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. In her will, Duke requested that no funeral or memorial service be held for her. . As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. 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. Newsom Closes California Theaters, "Dancing with the Stars" Needs a New Partner: Longtime Host Tom Bergeron Told Goodbye By ABC, Along with CoHost Erin Andrews, The Weeknd, Already on the Outs with the Grammys, Goes After Rolling Stone So They Rip Apart His New Show (Got That? The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. . In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. 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. S Son - Ti on Nicolas mothers side, things get more interesting Lafferty managed the,. From lack of exercise. they did not meet in dance class, because her leg was in a class. Having a lesbian affair relationship until 1990 when Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos ) from her first to! 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