In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. Chandi. One evening Steve Levy said that Miss Duke wanted him to administer a urine test on me. 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 . Claudia Heffner Peltz - Nelson Peltz's Wife - Glamourbreak 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. 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. [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. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. [59] Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. I knew from the beginning she was a son of a bitch." We would hear it, and we would just joke about it. Chandi Heffner is a small, sturdy woman with thick black shoulder-length hair and bone-white skin. His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. In Doris's case, she had done that. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. [61] After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. "The butler word they like," Lafferty lamented at the time, "because the butler always did it. It's so hard for me still, so hard." This was not a frivolous woman, either. Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. 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. Lafferty served. I asked Phyllis Saretta what she thought the attraction was. This was the fifth time that Duke had rewritten or revised her will since Heffner's banishment 26 months earlier. 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 . Why doesn't she help you?' SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. For the Beckhams, this marriage is like sinking the best goal ever. Contribution Totals: Download all contribution records for this person . The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. He was born on August 27, 1952, in Peekskill, New York, USA, as Paul Rubenfeld. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. ", She had already been planning to divorce Cromwell, but he apparently demanded a $7 million settlement. The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. The rest of the house was dark, which was odd. Wait til the Beckhams Meet the Parents: Nicola Peltz's - Showbiz411 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. And I didn't sense any antagonism between Chandi and Bernard." ", Glenn Scott Greenhouse, the president of the Pavillion Agency, confirmed that Lafferty's drinking became an issue at the Peltzes'. Do you think you could help him out?' . And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "It's very important that Doris has done this," he told me at the time. ", Heffner was sitting in the Manhattan apartment of one of her lawyers on a Saturday afternoon late last December. It was a long way from Creeslough, to be sure, for someone who only last year was dismissed by a US judge "as a profligate, illiterate drunk with a cavalier attitude towards money". ", 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. "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]. Mahn soon left, and in 1987 co-authored Daddy's Duchess: The Unauthorized Biography of Doris Duke. They hired him on Ferencz Soltesz's recommendation. 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. Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. 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. I was constantly arguing with Bernard . ", "Inventory of the Doris Duke Papers, 1798-2003 and undated (Duke University Libraries)", "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art | University of Michigan Museum of Art", "Our Founder | Doris Duke Charitable Foundation", "A Rare Look Inside Doris Duke's Shangri la Home in Hawaii", "Doris Duke's Storied Gardens Are No More", "Aimee de Heeren.com - one of the most glamorous Woman of the 20th century", "Did Billionaire Tobacco Heiress Doris Duke Get Away With Murder? And I was surprised. 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. "He was so attentive," Banks says. . Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. Chandi Heffner's Profile | Muck Rack 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. He went to Sarasota High School. 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. Because it was her major incapacity; there really wasn't anything else wrong with Doris. We wouldn't sit in the main dining room. ", By the time Duke returned to Shangri La that fall, she and Heffner were getting together on an almost daily basis, and when it was time to move back to Duke Farms in the spring of 1985, she invited Heffner to go with her. 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. ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. In the car, Chandi was saying, 'Oh, she's such a nice lady, and the house is gorgeous!' Movies. 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. 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. Just last May Lafferty agreed to relinquish his control of the estate in a settlement that left him with $4.5 million in executor's fees and the half million dollar annual income. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. 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. There was a deadly side to Doris. [58][36][51] Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Chandi said, 'But where do I find a man?' "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.". [23], Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. He also instilled in her an almost reflexive inability to trust people. This was an adoption on both sides of love, deep affection, respect, companionship and common interest, he said. Flamboyant life and death of a billionaire butler - The Irish Times Subscribers have complete access to the archive. And so I decidedthe biggest mistake of my 41 yearsto give this son of a bitch a second chance . BILLIONAIRE'S HEIR OUT OF PLACE - The Washington Post New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". ), 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. Guest's in Old Westbury: "She came by helicopter. This gives her the air of philanthropy. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. Guido Pagani - Co-Founder & CEO - Hivebound | LinkedIn Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. She also asked to be buried at sea. Finally, one of her new lawyers, Mr. Doyle, got it back on track. Miss Duke lives in a walled 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough, and rarely attracted . The next day Duke's lawyer called Heffner again and informed her that Duke wanted her out, too. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. [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. . Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. 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 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Currently, Chandi is single. 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. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money". Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii;[30] and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California,[31] once the home of Rudolph Valentino. 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. . Learn more in our Privacy Policy. Inspired by this trip, they bought the most spectacular piece of property near Diamond Head in Honolulu, on which they built a Mogul-style fortress and named it Shangri La. Chandi Heffner's Biography | Muck Rack ". Chandi was into Eastern cultures and all that stuff, and so was Doris. HEFFNER, CHANDI MS. KAMUELA, HI 96743: SELF-EMPLOYED/RANCHER: $2,000: 07/23/2003: P: BUSH-CHENEY '04 (PRIMARY) INC - Republican: Search: Contributors: Individual's Name: ". I remember that the captain of the helicopter was very worried and wanted her to leave early. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. Other people told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that she credited Lafferty with saving her life. Robinson described Miss Hefner, a native of Maryland, as an environmentalis t, preservationist and conservationist who spends her time doing things as a good citizen as Miss Duke does.. Heffner is also claiming her right to inherit two trusts which Buck Duke created in 1917 and 1924, on the ground that she is his lineal descendant and grandchild. Her estate, said one family member yesterday, is valued at more than $1 billion. And then eventually somebody else dropped back. And the person who could best illuminate Doris Duke's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, refused to talk to me. [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. And Doris said, 'How about the one next to you?' 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 framed photographs of his old mistress, Doris Duke, lined up alongside long dead matinee idols. Our six-week newsletter will help you make the right decision for you and your property. 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. 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. And Nicolas first cousin on her fathers side is the great New York broadcaster and filmmaker Perri Peltz, whose father was Nelsons older brother. He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. But no one in his circle believes he was ever able to enjoy the great turn in his fortunes. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. "[72] Subsequently, the foundations have sold some assets[73] and have closed Duke Gardens. 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. . "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. As she spoke, she leaned forward like a child who is eager to please, but when she sat back and let her lawyers take over, her face lost its animation and she seemed older, harder, drained. ", "I'm crazy about Bernard," says Oatsie Charles. If so, wrote Donders, "interposing into the process some new components of . Heiress Doris Duke's gems spark glittery pre-auction previews - SFGATE "I said, 'What's wrong?' The tough, highly intelligent Doris Duke (who lived by her father's dying dictum "Trust no one") had seen to that. Later on we would sleep together and Doris would come in most mornings and sit there on the bed with us and talk. . They talked constantly, and Nelson and Claudia used to go to lunches quite often with Chandi and Doris. 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, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. And she was so frail. 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.". The tobacco heiress fortune, one of the largest in U.S. history, has been the subject of complicated legal wrangling since she died at age 80 in 1993. In fact, it was Chandi Heffner who hired Bernard Lafferty for Doris Duke, in 1987. [62] Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940. Denise Hale recalls meeting Eduardo Tirella on the set of The Sandpiper, which was directed by her then husband, Vincente Minnelli, and having several dinners at Falcon's Lair. He flew to Newport, where Duke was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. Demopoulos said that Duke had mentioned her suspicions that she was being poisoned. . Doris bought her a sprawling horse farm worth then 30 years ago over a million bucks. Call your pilot tonight and leave immediately and go to Los Angeles and get checked up.' Now, please understand that I'm not accusing anyone of anything.". Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". Toward the end of the summer, in Newport, Heffner told Duke that she had to return to Hawaii, because she was concerned about her horses and dogs, and had planned a trip to Bali with Gordon Damon. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. Adam Smith followed a century later with direct consideration of the . . Her Newport artist pal Richard Banks said that that summer "Doris decided to do the whole social thing and she loved it. The headboard of his bed was carved from the door of an old Vanderbilt mansion. 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. "One hears all sorts of stories about how Rubi started in life, that he was Trujillo's sort of 'Press the doorbell, you answer the doorbell, and he went bang-bang.' Then one day in June, Miss Duke called me and said, 'Thomas, have you seen Bernard? Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. ", 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. to see complete work history. 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Chandi Heffner is the president and founder of CDH International Foundation (CDHIF), a US-based organization that supports humanitarian, medical, and animal service projects for the private nonprofit society CDHIF India. In the proceedings, Heffner formally renounced her natural parents, certified that she was not consenting to be adopted out of financial considerations, and legally changed her name from Charlene Gail Heffner to Chandi Duke Heffner. [64] The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes);[70][citation needed] Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. She started taking piano lessons before she went to school, had pianos in every one of her houses as well as in the black lacquered living room of her Park Avenue penthouse, and played every afternoon. Heffner told me, "Doris used to call James 'Teach.' 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. [36], Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. 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. Learn how your comment data is processed. [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]. Until she was 10, when she started at the Brearley School, she was tutored at home. For access to this information, contact In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play. Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. He received nothing. Enzo Natale concurs: "Chandi and Bernard were twins.". Chandi maintains relationships with many people -- family, friends, associates, & neighbors -- including Tomoko Hasejima, Kumiko Takata, Tadashi Kageyama, Masakatsu Ogata and Maki Ogata. Chandi Heffner established her organization on a small scale by undertaking humanitarian work in the field. Doris Duke committed suicide. "There was such a myth about Doris being a solitary person and not going out, so when she showed up somewhere, it was an event. 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. Doris said, 'Do you have time for a drink?' To this day he maintains, "A lot of injustice was done to me. 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. Charles became so concerned about Duke's condition that she called her and asked if Heffner had been "giving her something, I don't know what"even though Heffner had been out of the picture for a year and a half. Because MyLife only collects this data and does not create it, we cannot fully guarantee its accuracy. "Doris did this more for the president. Chandi Heffner has led the nonprofit charitable foundations CDHIF USA and CDHIFI India for more than a decade. 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.". This evidence would be more consistent with Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. She took daily tap lessons from Bill "Bojangles" Robinson at the Cotton Club, and for years studied ballet under Cyd Charisse's ex-husband, Nico. Doris loved animals. Under Chandi Heffner's leadership, CDHIF provides funding and support to a number of animal programs that benefit work . He was cooking and she was serving. [51], When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million,[52] with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. According to a frequent guest at Duke's various houses, Duke became more and more upset with Burns: "Doris told me that James started to strut around the place as if he was Mr. ", 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. It will be wonderful.' Meanwhile, Bernard said he wasn't feeling well and went back up to his room. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart.

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