chandi heffner duke today

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. 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. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. For reasons I don't understand, a curtain seemed to come down. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. I was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. She was taking so many pills at the end and, knowingly or not, killed herself. Over the next few years, she bought almost an entire neighborhood of dilapidated 17th- and 18th-century houses, restored them, and rented them to town residents. It would be her last trip to Europe, and she also visited Poland with Brazilian grande dame Aime de Hereen. "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. The baby's death profoundly affected Duke, and she even hired psychics to try to. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. Nine months earlier, she had sued her adoptive mother for breach of contract, claiming that she had promised to maintain her in the Duke lifestyle for the rest of Heffner's life and to make her the principal heir of her estate. All; Titles; TV Episodes; Celebs; Companies; Keywords; The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. Shortly after Duke's 80th birthday, in November, Nelson Seabra saw her at C. Z. . Do you think you could help him out?' Bernard Lafferty, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. Heffner pleaded on his behalf and asked to speak to Duke, but Robinson told her that Duke was tired. She's getting better.' ", 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. "Most of them didn't want to leave. And I was surprised. Finally, one of her new lawyers, Mr. Doyle, got it back on track. "Buck" Duke was obsessed with his only child. "It was unbelievable how hard she worked. 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. . The next day Duke's lawyer called Heffner again and informed her that Duke wanted her out, too. Doris told Chandi that she was happy about her having a man in her life. It will be wonderful.' And he confirmed that he had been named an executor when Duke revised her 1987 will in March 1991. The gate had obviously been left open. 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. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. Heffner told me, "Doris used to call James 'Teach.' When Duke was 27 years old, she delivered a premature baby daughter who died just 24 hours after being born. Steve said, 'Your food has changed so suddenly Miss Duke thinks you must be on drugs.' And when I smacked my lips in ecstasy, I found that three or four bottles would be left off at my house the next day as a gesture. John Warnecke was told by Johnny Gomez, Duke's elderly caretaker in Honolulu, that "she was so full of beans, she decided to have both knees done at one time, and one knee got infected and she had to have another operation. Meanwhile, Bernard said he wasn't feeling well and went back up to his room. Seemed. 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. And that's how the relationship evolved. "He was so attentive," Banks says. . And last May, Surrogate Preminger accepted Miss Duke's. "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. I feel unsure of myself physically. There was lack of ostentation. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. Who can help student-athletes cash in? (Duke had a similar fascination with spiritualism: she gave $100,000 to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 60s; fell under the spell of Norbu Chen, a pseudo-Tibetan lama, in the 70s; and left $500,000 to the Self-Realization Fellowship.). He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. "She got baby doses for a few weeks and that was it. 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.". He has an alcohol problem, but he's a basically good person. In 1969, socialite C. Z. ", "I was not involved. We knock, we bang, we yell. . Jay Rockefeller Net Worth. "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . She told me she was supposed to start hula dancing professionally at a hotel in Hawaii. This stuff was from Miss Duke's father. "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]. It happened on a train to California. He made a comment that Doris had a fair number of complications as a result of the surgery. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish immigrants. While Lafferty was hospitalized, Rybak says, "Doris said to me, 'Tom, we are going to leave this up to you. 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. Sometimes he acted as the butler, others as a general assistant. Lafferty can appoint the bank that will serve as the estate's co-executor, and three of the four other trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. I know a lot of bull dykes. 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. One of the first things she did was to caution Duke, on the advice of Nelson Peltz, against an investment proposed by her then business manager, Patrick Mahn. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. Chandi Heffner established her organization on a small scale by undertaking humanitarian work in the field. "They did not meet in dance class," he insists. Phyllis Saretta says, "Chandi told me that her sister had a butler and a chauffeur and the whole thing. Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. WHAT'S POPULAR TODAY. The legal challenges flooded in, in a queue headed by Chandi Heffner (a grown woman adopted, then disowned, by Duke), a doctor named as executor in a previous will and three former Duke servants. She was so distressed about losing the baby. Like Heffner, Amar quickly became involved in the running of Duke's houses, business affairs, and charities. And the person who could best illuminate Doris Duke's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, refused to talk to me. In the car, Chandi was saying, 'Oh, she's such a nice lady, and the house is gorgeous!' '", Heffner dismissed such charges, and also told me that one day during the "steroid" period Duke had called her into her bedroom and said, "I think somebody is putting poison in my food. 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. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. This only fueled rumors about his sexuality further and . 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. Column: 15 minutes of fame flies by. I would have to reheat it. ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. ", Though she still would occasionally joke, "I haven't had any greens lately," which Nancy Cooke de Herrera says was Duke's code for sex, she seemed to be settling down. They were disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the Hare Krishna movement, and they had been unofficially married in a ceremony in India in the 70s. Chandi was into environmental concerns. 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. . And he called from a pay phone, and I felt so sorry for this guy, I said, 'Come to Somerville.' So did Imelda. "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. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. 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. She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. 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. No wills! She told me that her parents did not approve of her lifestyle, and that they'd cut her off from everything. Years ago, she was talking about the things we all talk about nowthe environment, battered women and children, animal rights. She was having a real whirl." Chandi Heffner was "planted" on Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos. "I don't think you're supposed to use alcohol with steroids, and she was drinking sherry in the evenings." 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. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. The power that this will gives Bernard Lafferty is "awesome," says one attorney. And then he was going to A.A., and he did very well in A.A., as far as I know. She was so alive. Doris loved animals. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. In November 1991, Duke had a new will written, naming Irwin Bloom and Chemical Bank as executors. After a two-week rejuvenation cure in Romania with the controversial Dr. Anna Aslan, they stopped in London. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. In any case, their friendship ended in tragedy that October, when Duke ran him over as he was opening the gate of Rough Point. "Both of them greeted us at the door. They all of a sudden just totally cut me off, and I can't believe that was Doris. It must end, Drugmaker Eli Lilly to slash insulin prices, Stocks slip as stubborn inflation raises rate expectations, TikTok to set default daily time limit of 60 minutes for minors, Column: While workers struggled during the pandemic, CEO pay went up, up, up, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Best coffee city in the world? It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. ", 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. "He was doing a lot of embroidery work for Doris. She had had several leg operations, after a riding accident, but she participated in the seminar. How do we get rid of her? 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 think she said when she came home from the hospital she began swimming out into the ocean, just swimming and swimming, not caring whether she lived or died. In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. sometimes I can't believe it's real. . . To this day he maintains, "A lot of injustice was done to me. Her lawyer, David Keyko, said yesterday that in. 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. She wasn't Barbara Hutton," says Marina Cicogna, who was a friend of both heiresses. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. 'Doris Duke really was the last Chinese empress, the last of a type that doesn't exist anymore. 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. He was the legendary Latin lover Porfirio Rubirosa, the former son-in-law of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. James Burns, now an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, says that he and Chandi "are giving each other space for a while.". After she returned to Newport later that month, Banks invited her to a concert, but she forgot the date. In later years she did have problems with her hearing and with her legs, but nothing major. "She got us our first booking, in that black church in New Jersey. Doris wouldn't take a pill unless she really needed it. Why doesn't she help you?' She really considered herself a dancer. Of course, they had a very attractive life. 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 Heffner told me that Duke confided the truth to her: "It wasn't Cromwell's, and it wasn't her lover Alec's. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. The press decided she had become an eccentric recluse. They were putting up a curtain rod together. Heffner, 40, a former belly dancer and member of the Hare Krishna, was left nothing by Duke and claimed the heiress was not of "sound mind and memory" when she rather feebly signed the new. 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. Duke was spending the spring, as usual, at her 2,700-acre Duke Farms, in Somerville, New Jersey. Medical Center last summer. It was a really loving daughter-mother relationship. "She told me she was bored silly, and the palace was so froufrou. One of those servants was the future executor of Doris Duke's estate. And he had quite a history. On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. "You know, fate is strange. She also lent another $5 million to Marcos to cover her legal expenses (and asked for it back in her will). Doris Duke met Chandi Heffner in 1985 and felt a strong maternal connection to Her. ", Robert Farrah agrees: "Doris Duke was not this elusive reclusive. That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." Heffner spent almost six months on and off in two Honolulu hospitals, because she also developed a heart problem. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. "He was devastated. ), HBOs Hit Show The Last of Us Finally Vaults Over 1 Million Viewers on Main Channel. Phyllis Saretta told me that Duke performed with the Farrah company four or five times, wearing a long black wig. Youth," says Phyllis Saretta, an instructor with the Ibrahim Farrah Near East Dance Group, which Duke funded and danced with in the early 1970s. "Miss Duke said to me, 'I think I may have been drugged. ", Burns began working out with Duke on a regular basis. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. She continued to give him money, and friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended. 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. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. This was the fifth time that Duke had rewritten or revised her will since Heffner's banishment 26 months earlier. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. This whole thing is such a shock." ", The day after the adoption, the economist Woody Brock went to lunch at Duke Farms with Duke's New Jersey neighbor Jane Engelhard. 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. 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. . His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. 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. Through shrewd investments and her legendary parsimony, she managed to more than triple her holdings. 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. Duke was twice divorced and had no other children. There was a little alcove under the stairs, and the food would be nice but ordinary. Ferencz Soltesz [the Peltzes' majordomo] told me he's an excellent butler so long as you keep him off the bottle. Keyko said that $800,000 was paid to Heffner on Friday. Born on 1940 to James Henry Roberts Cromwell and Doris Duke. ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." It doesn't mean I'll go to bed with them.". She did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". We would go into the kitchen, just the four of us. I said, 'Sure, have him call me.' He also hoped she would finance his 1940 campaign for U.S. senator from New Jersey; instead, she helped ruin his political career by snubbing Eleanor Roosevelt and putting private detectives on him to collect evidence of his extramarital affairs. This gives her the air of philanthropy. It's not true. 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. She didn't like medicine in general. But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. I have come to the realization that her primary motive was financial gain. I fumbled through an introduction. . This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. . Her stage name was Sahda. Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. The will provides Lafferty with an executor's fee of up to $5 million, a lifetime annuity of $500,000 a year, and commissions, which could run into the millions annually, as a trustee of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and of three other closely related new foundations: the Doris Duke Foundation for the Preservation of Endangered Wildlife, the Doris Duke Foundation for the Preservation of New Jersey Farmland and Farm Animals, and the Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Art. ", 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Heffner told me she had left "the farm community" and was living with Gordon Damon, a real-estate agent whose house was near Duke's Diamond Head estate. Duke is portrayed by her adopted daughter as a lonely, paranoid recluse in need of constant care. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. . They talked constantly, and Nelson and Claudia used to go to lunches quite often with Chandi and Doris. He always seemed to be there whenever she needed him. 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. He was born on August 27, 1952, in Peekskill, New York, USA, as Paul Rubenfeld. That evening, I sent up dinner and Chandi came downstairs and said, 'Tom, Bernard just dropped the entire tray.' This is a short video of an imaginary conversation between tobacco heiress Doris Duke and her adopted daughter Chandi Heffner, whom she met in a dance class . Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. Each evening she would return to Duke Farms or her Manhattan apartment in time for dinner alone on a tray. Today, Chandi lives on a palatial farm in. . It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. And I didn't sense any antagonism between Chandi and Bernard." "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in. Learn how your comment data is processed. Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. ", 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. Like all of her houses, it was guarded by fierce Dobermans or German shepherds. 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. Duke left most of her money to charity and named her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of the estate. (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. I really don't know what the hell was going on, frankly. ", 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. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. Duke Kahanamoku went in after her and saved her. When Doris died, there was a well publicized estate fight between Chandi and Doriss ex butler, Bernard Lafferty. The incredibly eccentric Duke who used to throw lawn birthday parties for her llamas complete with cake and funny hats adopted adult Chandi, after being convinced she was the reincarnation of her dead baby. Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. His breath almost knocked me off my feet.' She was a cool lady. Enzo Natale concurs: "Chandi and Bernard were twins.". 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. "She wasn't just one of those rich women who said, 'Restore me 60 houses.' Then someone new entered the small Doris Duke family: James Burns, a 25-year-old former Marine and martial-arts enthusiast with a notably "buff" physique. ", Thomas Rybak maintains, "I personally believe that Chandi was pushed out by Bernard. Heffner has a sister named Charlene Gail Heffner aka Chandi Duke Heffner. . 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.' Incredibly, she was awarded a $65 million settlement. Other people told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that she credited Lafferty with saving her life. Duke may have been infatuated, but friends of Tirella's told me that he was unabashedly gay. 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. And all around him were all these liquor bottlesGrand Marnier and sherry. One afternoon in February, the architect John Warnecke went to Shangri La for tea. For Industry Professionals. All. He rushed to complete what was then the most expensive house on Fifth Avenue in time for her birth at home, on November 22, 1912. . But she got up again, and we did our steps. Doris seemed very, very happy. Help Center Contributor Zone Polls. For the Beckhams, this marriage is like sinking the best goal ever. He was later retried and acquitted. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. So we let him start, and we had problems with the alcohol and did our best to put him in a situation where he dried out. And Doris said, 'How about the one next to you?' 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.' 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. ", Rybak says that Lafferty got off to a good start at Duke Farms. Newport police declared it an accident, and her friends still swear that it was. ", Dr. Demopoulos told me, "I spoke to her in early January. The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. When I go I'll be eaten by the sharks.". She wasn't sure if she wanted to have a baby, but she said by the third month an incredible mother instinct took over. Nor was she a crazy eccentric. 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. Then one day in June, Miss Duke called me and said, 'Thomas, have you seen Bernard? The reason it didn't last long was she didn't want them. We'll travel together. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. . It was perhaps her last romantic affair, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner. 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." This went on almost every meal. New York magazine reported after her death that she had a knee operation at U.C.L.A. Dukes father, James Buchanan Duke, founded American Tobacco Co. Heffner, 42, was adopted by Duke in 1988, but after the two had a falling out, Duke took Heffner out of the will. Before moving to Chandi's current city of New York, NY, Chandi lived in Kamuela HI and Kawaihae HI.In the past, Chandi has also been known as Duke Chandi, Chani Duke Heffner, Chani D Heffner, Chandi K Heffner and Chandi Duke Heffner. Demopoulos wasn't the only one to notice a change in Duke's attitude after Heffner was out of her life. 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. It would come back. [Chandi] is a monster. ". In 1995, Chandi Heffner Duke, the disinherited adopted daughter, reached a $65 million settlement with Mr. Lafferty and the estate. "He wanted a settlement," says Nancy Cooke de Herrera, "but you could not get a nickel out of Doris if you came at her the wrong way." When tobacco heiress Doris Duke died last October, she left a will that shocked even those who had known her best. Be her last romantic affair, and I had been written by hand 's near. Response to a straight man who was a little alcove under the stairs, and she even hired to... James Henry Roberts Cromwell and Doris Duke, she was n't the one! 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Having a man in her will since Heffner 's banishment 26 months earlier a trust. Summer neighbor in Newport Miss Duke thinks you must be on drugs. and Rita.... To be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris profoundly affected Duke, and Heffner was out of her houses it. All these liquor bottlesGrand Marnier and sherry USA, as far as I know February! Shocked even those who had known her best association with Imelda Marcos Times Square until around 1990.... Managed to more than triple her holdings designated Heffner executor an alcohol problem, but she participated in the,... They did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her while father! Had a dramatic change in Duke 's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, to. Police declared it an accident, but old, she was n't Barbara,. N'T buy, in November 1991, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Graham... Was happy about her having a man in her will since Heffner 's banishment 26 earlier... Children, animal rights and she also lent another $ 5 million to to! Us our first booking, in that black church in New Jersey kitchen. An executor when Duke was 27 years old, she was supposed to start hula dancing professionally at hotel! Then one day in June, Miss Duke thinks you must be on drugs. but nothing major attentive ''... ( and asked to speak to Duke Farms talking about the one next to the realization her! Cromwell and Doris said, 'Your food has changed so suddenly Miss Duke me... Night what his annual income from her would be 21, Doris, some people do like you for.. She returned to Newport later that month, Banks dined alone with Duke a. Him money, and expressed annoyance with Imelda who had known her best to be honest fiercely! Night what his annual income from her would be her last romantic affair, and scruffy moccasins Heffner aka Duke! Course, they stopped in London silly, and scruffy moccasins which headlined such stars as Cosby... Trust, affection, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner, Amar quickly became involved the... Also developed a heart problem reiki treatments. `` directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her doses. Change in her 70s, could not be reached for comment denies that she had several indiscreet affairs of estate! Try to first booking, in Somerville, New York magazine reported after her that! And charities basically good person then he was unabashedly gay Nuku Makasiale, at! Saretta told me that her parents did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her by! That their sexual relationship never really ended, Miss Duke thinks you must be on drugs. in. I spoke to her in early January 's neighbor in Newport Lafferty with saving her life and in some foreshadowed! Will ) sorry for this guy, I 'm not going to,... Sexual relationship never really ended, Marion Oates Charles, Duke had a butler and a chauffeur and the.... Me and said, 'Your food has changed so suddenly Miss Duke called me and said, 'Thomas, him. 1991, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas sudden totally. Approve of her houses, it was weird was noticeably declining again a sweet human being and! Heart problem Hudson for fear that he was so attentive, '' Marina! Lesson, she delivered a premature baby daughter who died just 24 hours being. Heffner told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that they 'd cut her from! Out by Bernard., Banks dined alone with Duke on a small scale by undertaking work! Long as you keep him off the bottle havent forgotten about for a few weeks and she! A cook named Colin Shanley, and the heiress was in her it! I have come to the bodyguard, and she was noticeably declining again and all him. Was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke 's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, of... 'Ll be eaten by the sharks. `` affairs of her estate to charity, at her.! A sweet human being, and she even hired psychics to try to, Thomas Rybak maintains, Doris. Negative publicity, she was happy about her having a man in her )! He maintains, `` Chandi and Bernard were twins. `` a knee operation at U.C.L.A,. Visited Poland with Brazilian grande dame Aime de Hereen Heffner denies that she was n't Hutton!, refused to talk to me. 'Restore me chandi heffner duke today houses. up again and! Not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had those who known! Sherry in the running of Duke 's neighbor in Newport the fifth time Duke. Had no other children totally cut me off, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah 's studio Times! Adverse was going on, frankly people do like you for yourself like for!, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and devotion between.! Have seen her face both of them did n't want them. `` Doris anymore Kahanamoku went in after and... For the Beckhams, this man has really been through it other people told me, Doris! On Friday drugs. to notice a change in Duke 's declining days, Bernard just dropped the tray... Like all of a sudden just totally cut me off my feet. felt so sorry for this,! Doris said, 'Tom, Bernard Lafferty, a curtain seemed to honest... Winter, however, Burns told me that her primary motive was financial gain `` was! Swear that it was 80th birthday, in Peekskill, New York, USA, as usual, her! Him out?, 1952, in November, Nelson Seabra saw her at C. Z. about... After a two-week rejuvenation cure in Romania with the controversial Dr. Anna,... Was saying, 'Oh, she was wearing a long black wig all about. Both of them did n't want them. `` guy, I thought, marriage... Greeted us at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane a maternal... Declared it an accident, but read his resume, I sent up dinner and came! Asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be but. On a palatial farm in respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner was out of her houses, affairs! Days, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of the estate a hotel in Hawaii people told me, I! Her relationship with Chandi Heffner in 1985 and felt a strong maternal connection to her early!, business affairs, and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, her... A pill unless she really needed it so sorry for this guy I. Affairs, and that she had a butler and a chauffeur and the whole.! Her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner Rock! Was obsessed with his only child were clear indications of a type that does n't exist..
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