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 February, a few weeks after Protas returned to New York with Graham, he received a phone call from Duke at three in the morning. In the car, Chandi was saying, 'Oh, she's such a nice lady, and the house is gorgeous!' I never heard from Doris again and I could never reach her again. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. . Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and. ", 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. [4] At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter,[5] along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. I came back clean as a whistle. If I were Victoria Beckham, I wouldnt count on a big wedding present. In addition to providing medical care, food, and veterinary care, Ms. Heffner also devotes some of her resources to cultural preservation efforts in India. But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. Christopher Duffy, the former manager of Duke's Hawaiian estate, has told of a volatile relationship between the billionaire and Heffner, including frequent arguments and thrown crockery. By 1963 she was having Castro trailed by a private investigator. 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. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. When Doris died, there was a well publicized estate fight between Chandi and Doriss ex butler, Bernard Lafferty. For access to this information, contact Chandi. Mercedes Bass remembered Duke's coming for tea at the Carlyle Hotel a year or so earlier and introducing Heffner as "my niece." And then eventually somebody else dropped back. ". . Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The next day Duke's lawyer called Heffner again and informed her that Duke wanted her out, too. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion. When he went to pick her up, Lafferty told him, "Always keep me informed, so that I can be sure everything works." "It was ironic that the man Doris loved the most was the greatest gigolo of all time," says Marina Cicogna. Chandi got a couple of the housemen, and they brought him to the Somerville hospital." "Chandi loved animals. 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. 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. This went on almost every meal. He always seemed to be there whenever she needed him. ", "I was not involved. and as we were leaving they exchanged telephone numbers. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. ", 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. They sparkled in his earring, in his bracelet and his watch. Demopoulos said that Duke had mentioned her suspicions that she was being poisoned. "[72] Subsequently, the foundations have sold some assets[73] and have closed Duke Gardens. "Darling, the girl is out the door without a cent," Franco Rossellini trilled to a friend. Maybe the judge believed he showed poor judgment in choosing Melrose Avenue as a good spot for antique shopping sprees, or in blithely spending $1,500 to have his hair dyed "Doris Duke Blonde". 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. London, United Kingdom . "Miss Duke said to me, 'I think I may have been drugged. 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. I fumbled through an introduction. I was constantly arguing with Bernard . 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. Now, please understand that I'm not accusing anyone of anything.". 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.' It was a really loving daughter-mother relationship. Doris Dukes adopted daughter has ended her fight to gain control of the late billionaires fortune in exchange for a $65-million settlement from the estate. ", Heffner blamed Duke's altered feelings on the steroids she claims Duke was taking then. Charlene Gail Heffner goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? "Most of them didn't want to leave. "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . [25][26], Duke acquired a number of homes. One week later, Doris Duke stunned the world again by adopting Chandi Heffner at the Somerset County Court House in Somerville, to which the two women were accompanied by Donald Robinson. In June 1985, Duke and Heffner traveled to Russia together. I feel in danger.' [12][13] Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry, a coat,[14] and an additional $250 million (see below). Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. [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. After Bloom was fired, Protas was told the loan was being reviewed. . ", In either March or April, Demopoulos said, he received a call from Irwin Bloom, who told him that he had been fired by Duke. [8][9] One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street[8] which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir. . [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. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. I really don't know what the hell was going on, frankly. "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. When I go I'll be eaten by the sharks.". "Io sono molto contento. Her mother was another story. . [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. But the same enemies were sad, embittered creatures to begin with. Chandi Heffner - Waimea, Hawaii | about.me The 20 foot high bedroom in which he was found was draped in wine red velvet and lit by a Venetian chandelier. Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. And he would tell me, 'Miss Heffner's complaining.' Before moving to Chandi's current city of New York, NY, Chandi lived in Kamuela HI and Kawaihae HI. In published accounts of Duke's break with Heffner, Bernard Lafferty, who was worried about Duke's health, had called Rossellini in Europe a few weeks earlier and told him, "Something is really wrong here. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. But no one in his circle believes he was ever able to enjoy the great turn in his fortunes. A stingy southern belle, Nanaline Holt Inman was a widow with one son when she married Buck Duke in 1907. ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. And clearly he balked at Bernard's on off relationship with alcohol - a lifelong conflict characterised by faithful attendance at AA meetings punctuated by massive binges - which in one soaring episode soon after joining Duke's staff in 1987 found him, according to one former staff member, "buck naked, bent over a chair, passed out", surrounded by a slew of (tragically empty) Grand Marnier bottles from the Duke cellars, some of so old and distinguished a vintage that the labels were hand written. 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. And I didn't sense any antagonism between Chandi and Bernard." She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. (Von Blow is referring to a 1982 dinner party Duke gave at '21' in New York for his friends shortly after he had been convicted of attempting to murder his wife, Sunny. We were joking around, because we both had bad knees. Tirella's family sued Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. It's so hard for me still, so hard." 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. By any standard, Bernard Lafferty was not a conventional choice to oversee a billion dollar legacy. "Not at all. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. He died as he had lived in recent years, in flamboyant splendour, in his 8,000 sq ft Los Angeles home, a $2 million Bel Air fantasy, decorated with enormous silver urns, formal oil paintings and. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption. Ron Protas also told me that Duke had a fear of fire, and that when he told her about "the terrible experience" of scattering Martha Graham's ashes, Duke said, "It's never going to happen to me. Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. Links are provided for reference only and MyLife.com does not imply any connection or relationship between MyLife.com and these companies. Chandi has taken control of this Reputation Profile & made sections private. . 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. By A. Rnyi. 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. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor[68] and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Thats not much considering what shes worth. ", Heffner wryly noted that Bernard Lafferty, accompanied by a bodyguard and chauffeur, had sat through her depositions wearing a five-carat-diamond earring, a diamond bracelet, and a diamond watch. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. 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. In return, Heffner claims, the twice-divorced Duke promised to "take care" of Heffner for the rest of her life. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. They named them Princess and Baby. 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. It was perhaps her last romantic affair, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner. Love. 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. [36], In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. 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. I asked Phyllis Saretta what she thought the attraction was. "We concentrated on her leg-muscle group," he said. I have come to the realization that her primary motive was financial gain. "It's very important that Doris has done this," he told me at the time. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees. [46] Duke and Rubirosa divorced a little over a year after they were married, in October of 1948, and Duke never married again. Her Newport artist pal Richard Banks said that that summer "Doris decided to do the whole social thing and she loved it.
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