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. And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "We concentrated on her leg-muscle group," he said. For the Beckhams, this marriage is like sinking the best goal ever. Kids get annoyed with their parents.". But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. Doris loved it. Los Angeles, A $150,000 executive protection dog? 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. . . 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. ", 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. About the time Bloom was fired, Duke also abruptly left Chemical Bank and replaced her estate lawyer, William Zabel, of Schulte Roth & Zabel, with William Doyle, of the Chicago firm of Katten Muchin & Zavis. ", Burns began working out with Duke on a regular basis. 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. Rich L.A. homeowners are snapping them up, Column: Supreme Court conservatives may want to block student loan forgiveness. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. 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. 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.' ", 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. One of those servants was the future executor of Doris Duke's estate. They talked constantly, and Nelson and Claudia used to go to lunches quite often with Chandi and Doris. "They did not meet in dance class," he insists. 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. 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. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. Chandi Heffner established her organization on a small scale by undertaking humanitarian work in the field. She didn't like medicine in general. She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. And when she left, that adverse thing ceased. 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. 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 . Today, the museum features objects, furniture, and art selected, arranged, and used by Doris to make Rough Point a home. It will be wonderful.' Her stage name was Sahda. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. Burns said that he was also training Lafferty, to help him lose his paunch. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. Until Doris Duke's death, this would be her principal residence. "She designed those houses and she saw to every color," says Newport artist Richard Banks. A. once a week wherever we were. To this day he maintains, "A lot of injustice was done to me. 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. 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? She clapped her hands in glee. In Newport, she loved going to the jazz festival, and then one would sometimes have dinner in that huge house with the ferocious dogs snarling behind the gates. Years ago, she was talking about the things we all talk about nowthe environment, battered women and children, animal rights. Born on 1940 to James Henry Roberts Cromwell and Doris Duke. Usually something came in the mail that she wanted to discuss, because Chandi was taking care of her financial affairs. (1940 - 1940) Photos: 19. Her first husband, James R. Cromwell, called Duke "my frigidheiress" and engaged in a lengthy court battle to win a financial settlement. Once a day, she meditates in her "deity room," which is filled with golden statues from India. His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. 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. It's not true. We knock, we bang, we yell. This only fueled rumors about his sexuality further and . Today, Chandi lives on a palatial farm in. ". She had just been through three days of depositions in New Jersey, where her lawsuit was filed, and had two more days to go before she could fly back to Hawaii, where she lives on an isolated 300-acre horse ranch, which Duke had bought for her on the Big Island for about $1.5 million before their rupture, and where she keeps a loaded pistol beside her bed. 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. . She also lent another $5 million to Marcos to cover her legal expenses (and asked for it back in her will). Doris Duke dumped Chandi Heffner because Heffner wanted to marry one of their bodyguards. 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." About Heffner's sister. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. ", In either March or April, Demopoulos said, he received a call from Irwin Bloom, who told him that he had been fired by Duke. When she was a cult member of Hare Krishna she got adopted by a Billionaire Heiress of a Tobacco company and Philanthropist, Doris Duke when she went to Hawaii in the 1980s. Doris was into it, too. Let them kill each other over it.' He came over here, and she died. Because it was her major incapacity; there really wasn't anything else wrong with Doris. That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." One time we were performing at an Arab party at this catering hall in Brooklyn called the Venetian Manor, and Doris and I were partners. Claudia Heffner's Sister Has A Weird Story. I remember her referring to 'we dancers.' Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. "She was told she has a pretty good case," the family member said. 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. Enzo Natale concurs: "Chandi and Bernard were twins.". Nor was she a crazy eccentric. On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. And Nicolas first cousin on her fathers side is the great New York broadcaster and filmmaker Perri Peltz, whose father was Nelsons older brother. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. She also asked to be buried at sea. All. Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. Chandi Duke Heffner was recognized for her outstanding support of the Marshall Legacy Institute's, landmine detection program. (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.). She was a cool lady. "Io sono molto contento. 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. 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. You felt that she was going to break. ", Sometimes, Robert Farrah recalls, "Doris would throw up her hands and say, 'No wills! (After Duke's death, the trustees of her estate became defendants in this lawsuit.). The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. ". Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. 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. This should be some rehearsal dinner! 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. "Elvis made whites interested in black music," she once told me, "which was very important, because race is the biggest problem we have in America.". She has completely wired the small house on her own, and she boards horses and cows for neighbors for $15 a head per month. "There was a rumor that she did it deliberately. One of Chandi's doctors thought that pregnancy might help her conditions, and Chandi was discussing this with Doris one evening in Newport while I was sitting there. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. 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. (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). As a young girl, she wrote him love notes, which he pored over again and again. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. No wills! ", Another of Duke's intimates said that the real reason her closest friends were in favor of the adoption was that "Doris had contemplated suicide, and we thought we could have some peace of mind that she wouldn't kill herself as long as Chandi was around. Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and . The only times I saw Doris really relaxed were these few times in Beverly Hills.". . . And he confirmed that he had been named an executor when Duke revised her 1987 will in March 1991. ", Robert Farrah agrees: "Doris Duke was not this elusive reclusive. ", Thomas Rybak maintains, "I personally believe that Chandi was pushed out by Bernard. Chandi Duke Heffner Net Worth Chandi Duke Heffner Net Worth 2022, Age, Height, Relationships, Married, Dating, Family, Wiki Biography. Last year she gave $40,000 to help people in India, $45,000 to Bronx Veterans Medical Research, and $2000 to the Hawaii Saddle Club. . ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. . He was very good at repairing old costumes and fabric. If anyone has news on Chandi from the far reaches of Hawaii, drop us a line at showbiz411@gmail.com. Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. 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 . But she had a dramatic change in her lifeand it was weird. Doris bought her a sprawling horse farm worth then 30 years ago over a million bucks. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. It would be her last trip to Europe, and she also visited Poland with Brazilian grande dame Aime de Hereen. Bernard Lafferty, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. Last year she gave. On the last day of the seminar, he spent the afternoon with Duke at Shangri La. I came back clean as a whistle. Chandi Duke Heffner, age 60s, lives in Kamuela, HI. ", Rybak says that Lafferty got off to a good start at Duke Farms. I remember when I read his resume, I thought, This man has really been through it. "It was ironic that the man Doris loved the most was the greatest gigolo of all time," says Marina Cicogna. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. Community. He has an alcohol problem, but he's a basically good person. "She got us our first booking, in that black church in New Jersey. 'I loved her so much. (Other sources say the meeting took place in 1985.) 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. 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