"It was really sad," Heffner said, "because Martha arrived and Doris wouldn't go see her. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. It's so hard for me still, so hard." ", Heffner was with Gary McElroy, with whom she was then living on a communal farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. And Nicolas first cousin on her fathers side is the great New York broadcaster and filmmaker Perri Peltz, whose father was Nelsons older brother. Burns said that he was also training Lafferty, to help him lose his paunch. She also asked to be buried at sea. 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. The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. Shes the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz. 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. 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. You can live in the manner that I live and have this lifestyle. The last words were 'Stay in touch, Harry.' Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. ", Sometimes, Robert Farrah recalls, "Doris would throw up her hands and say, 'No wills! 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 loved her so much. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. Like Heffner, Amar quickly became involved in the running of Duke's houses, business affairs, and charities. Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. 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. 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. In 1995, Chandi Heffner Duke, the disinherited adopted daughter, reached a $65 million settlement with Mr. Lafferty and the estate. ". 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. New York magazine reported after her death that she had a knee operation at U.C.L.A. In November 1991, Duke had a new will written, naming Irwin Bloom and Chemical Bank as executors. Chandi Heffner was "planted" on Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos. There was a deadly side to Doris. 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. Chandi Duke Heffner, Self: Oh My God. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. After testy negotiations with local authorities, she finally shipped the pieces to New Jersey and installed them in her indoor tennis court. Doris Duke met Chandi Heffner in 1985 and felt a strong maternal connection to Her. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". ", Almost every friend of Duke's I talked to, including her many homosexual friends, told me that she had always been an avid heterosexual. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. For some reason, Doris actually came to believe that Chandi. "She got us our first booking, in that black church in New Jersey. Learn how your comment data is processed. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. . They hired him on Ferencz Soltesz's recommendation. Heffner almost broke down again. Demopoulos wasn't the only one to notice a change in Duke's attitude after Heffner was out of her life. It would come back. In June 1985, Duke and Heffner traveled to Russia together. And he would tell me, 'Miss Heffner's complaining.' I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. . Much to the surprise of almost everyone who knew Duke, she named her butler of six years, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate and placed him in control of the newly created Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which is to receive almost her entire fortune. Heffner was also responsible for hiring a new accountant, Irwin Bloom, and a security consultant, Steven Levy, both of whom had worked for Nelson Peltz. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". [Chandi] is a monster. She did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her. "Not at all. They named them Princess and Baby. . Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. The first one, in Hawaii, didn't work out: she wanted to make a museum out of a Thai temple that she had saved from destruction on one of her many trips to Southeast Asia. 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. It will be wonderful.' "I couldn't quite keep up, so I was in the back of the class. Chandi Duke Heffner, age 60s, lives in Kamuela, HI. Call your pilot tonight and leave immediately and go to Los Angeles and get checked up.' This stuff was from Miss Duke's father. Doris Duke dumped Chandi Heffner because Heffner wanted to marry one of their bodyguards. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. "Chandi works very hard for Doris. That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." 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. 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.". ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. Guest's in Old Westbury: "She came by helicopter. On Thursday, October 28, 1993, Duke died at Falcon's Lair. 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 . Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and . Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. Until Doris Duke's death, this would be her principal residence. In 1968, she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, with Jacqueline Onassis as vice president. The two women developed a deep bond almost instantly. Each evening she would return to Duke Farms or her Manhattan apartment in time for dinner alone on a tray. ", Burns began working out with Duke on a regular basis. 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. 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. 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. One afternoon in February, the architect John Warnecke went to Shangri La for tea. He was later retried and acquitted. She had episodes of pneumonia, she had clots in her veins, and some of those clots may have traveled to her lungs. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. 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. I almost feel . Doris was into it, too. I said, 'Sure, have him call me.' 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. . "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . And he confirmed that he had been named an executor when Duke revised her 1987 will in March 1991. Both Heffner and her lawyers emphatically deny that Nelson Peltz is financing Heffner's legal efforts. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. Heffner, who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii on a ranch that Duke previously purchased for her, said in court papers that after their February 1991 breakup she learned that Duke had made changes in her will, and "the estate has not been left to Chandi as Doris had agreed." 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. She was ahead of her time. 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. (Burns dismisses reports that he was once a Chippendales dancer: "Not that I haven't been asked. People get annoyed with their kids. If anyone has news on Chandi from the far reaches of Hawaii, drop us a line at showbiz411@gmail.com. It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. ", Dr. Harry Demopoulos, an early promoter of antioxidants and megavitamins, whose patients include Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone, had been Doris Duke's personal physician since 1981. Her mother was another story. ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. About Heffner's sister. Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored eyes. . 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. She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. The reason it didn't last long was she didn't want them. This gives her the air of philanthropy. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. "Rubi" was also presented with a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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." And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. Jay Rockefeller Net Worth. 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. In Doris's case, she had done that. 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