I thought she was really nice, genuine.". "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]. ", In late 1990, he said, "I detected a growing unhappiness on Doris's part. In 1933, when she turned 21, Doris Duke came into the first $10 million left by her father. That's not the Doris I knew. I have come to the realization that her primary motive was financial gain. 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. The 1987 will had designated Heffner executor. So we went into the room, and Bernard was buck naked, bent over a chair, passed out. But I have no real medical knowledge of what transpired in California during the spring and summer of last year.". 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." ", Thomas Rybak maintains, "I personally believe that Chandi was pushed out by Bernard. "She used to come and see me and just cry," says singer Peggy Lee, who was friendly with Tirellaand who would later employ Bernard Lafferty as a butler. Doris seemed very, very happy. The baby's death profoundly affected Duke, and she even hired psychics to try to. 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. ), HBOs Hit Show The Last of Us Finally Vaults Over 1 Million Viewers on Main Channel. Even Imelda didn't see her.". . "He had done her hair in a pageboy, and she looked so pretty, though she was painfully thin." Donald Robinson then called and informed Heffner that Duke wanted Burns out of the house. Chandi Heffner is 69 years old today because Chandi's birthday is on 08/26/1953. . I remember her referring to 'we dancers.' "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . She did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her. Doris Duke met Chandi Heffner in 1985 and felt a strong maternal connection to Her. . Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. The circumstances of Dukes death remain under investigation. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. And I was surprised. . I suppose it was Doris's fault for never talking about what she did.". Another time, at a college in upstate New York, Bobby [Farrah] didn't have her dancehe had her completely veiled, and she sat on the stage and played finger cymbals. Although Duke was determined to produce his own heir, Nanaline was as surprised as everyone else when she became pregnant at the age of 42, and she always favored her son, Walker Inman, over Doris. I said, 'Sure, have him call me.' As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. He received nothing. "We discussed cremation, and she said, 'Never, never, ever let anyone cremate me.' "He was so attentive," Banks says. . She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. 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. I fumbled through an introduction. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. . And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "I said, 'What's wrong?' "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. ", "I'm crazy about Bernard," says Oatsie Charles. And he had quite a history. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. On October 6, it was announced that Duke had made a donation of $1 million to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. 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 . In her lawsuit, Heffner claims it was she who arranged this transaction, as well as the payment of $5 million of Marcos's legal bills. 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. This gives her the air of philanthropy. He named both his private Pullman car and his 80-foot yacht after her, and surrounded her with bodyguards. She was having a real whirl." Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and . The press decided she had become an eccentric recluse. Doris Duke dumped Chandi Heffner because Heffner wanted to marry one of their bodyguards. 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. So I fixed another tray and brought it upstairs. We took him to Newport. "It's very important that Doris has done this," he told me at the time. Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. and as we were leaving they exchanged telephone numbers. The couple lived together from 1990 until 1993. She was a cool lady. A stingy southern belle, Nanaline Holt Inman was a widow with one son when she married Buck Duke in 1907. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. Lafferty served. He was cooking and she was serving. Guest's in Old Westbury: "She came by helicopter. Claudia Heffner's Sister Has A Weird Story. She never married again, and from then on the men in her life, whether they were lovers or not, were considerably younger and came from the creative world. She said, 'There was nothing to do on that train.' And the person who could best illuminate Doris Duke's declining days, Bernard Lafferty, refused to talk to me. Then the U.S. government blindsided it, Column: Uber and Lyfts deactivation policy is dehumanizing and unfair. Irwin Bloom had made the arrangements and then Duke called Protas from Los Angeles and joked, ''For God's sake, try to pay it back," Protas recalled. A member of Heffner's family said yesterday that it is likely Chandi Duke Heffner, who legally changed her name, will accept a settlement for several million dollars. Ari Emanuel lets his AI alter ego open Endeavors earnings call, Sam Bankman-Fried increasingly isolated as another associate takes a plea deal, How Black Market Flea and Everyday People brought the buzz of Black life to the Beehive. Burns served as Chandi Heffner Duke's "companion, confidant, cook, bodyguard," according to the suit, and she, in turn, agreed that they would divide "her expected inheritance." There was lack of ostentation. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. 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 . "Her legs were almost starting to atrophy from lack of exercise." She had episodes of pneumonia, she had clots in her veins, and some of those clots may have traveled to her lungs. ", 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. 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. . Later on we would sleep together and Doris would come in most mornings and sit there on the bed with us and talk. Do you think you could help him out?' And all of a sudden I started hearing, 'The food is cold.' "Sometimes people are attracted to the thing they fear the most.". I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her. A few hours later, when Heffner returned from a show-jumping lesson, she was informed that Doris had flown to Los Angeles. "But she thought everybody was after her money. ", The day after the adoption, the economist Woody Brock went to lunch at Duke Farms with Duke's New Jersey neighbor Jane Engelhard. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. This gives her the air of philanthropy. The next day I got a phone call from Doris to thank me. Heffner takes credit for everything from improving the dairy herd at Duke Farms to arranging the sale of Duke's gold deposits in Switzerland. . She got right up like a trouper and fell right down again. Were there . Let them kill each other over it.' One evening Steve Levy said that Miss Duke wanted him to administer a urine test on me. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. 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. One of those servants was the future executor of Doris Duke's estate. She was very into the ritualistic part of Hawaiian dance. He was later retried and acquitted. Lafferty also may pay fees to and divide commissions among the trustees as he sees fit. 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. People get annoyed with their kids. . Of course, they had a very attractive life. Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. . After giving the matter prolonged and serious consideration, I am convinced that I should not have adopted Chandi Heffner. "Bernard got out of the hospital. In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. She's getting better.' According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." The reason it didn't last long was she didn't want them. 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. Although she was constantly compared to Hutton from the time they both had fairy-tale coming-out parties the year after the stock market crashed, Duke always hated the comparison to the much-married Woolworth heiress, who died penniless. Chandi said, 'But where do I find a man?' She continued to give him money, and friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended. And the whispers about Duke's last years continue. Duke turned up at the Ritz in Paris that October walking with a cane. [Chandi] is a monster. I said, 'Doris, do it, I think it's a good thing.' After Bloom was fired, Protas was told the loan was being reviewed. She was so alive. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. 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. Movies. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. Her second husband, Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, fared only slightly better: His divorce settlement was estimated at $1 million. 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. I asked Doris and she said, 'Yeah, it's fine.' I'll go to dinner with them. . To this day he maintains, "A lot of injustice was done to me. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. "She moved very well for that kind of dancingwe called it Middle Eastern, or danse orientale, but essentially it's belly dancing. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. Why doesn't she help you?' 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. "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." His family all died, and he had one remaining relative, in Philadelphia. "I don't think you're supposed to use alcohol with steroids, and she was drinking sherry in the evenings." (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. . There was a gradual onset of a depressed relationship between Doris and Chandi, starting about the middle of 1990 and going progressively downhill. 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. "Chandi loved animals. 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. "Both of them greeted us at the door. Meanwhile, Bernard said he wasn't feeling well and went back up to his room. His mother was a teacher, while his father fought as a pilot during WWII. The gate had obviously been left open. 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. "He seemed depressed, and Doris thought it would give him more self-esteem. And let me tell you that she gave a really nice dinner party for me at the nadir of my fortunes. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". Bernard Lafferty, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. ", In either March or April, Demopoulos said, he received a call from Irwin Bloom, who told him that he had been fired by Duke. He felt deeply grateful to Doris, as I did.". In the car, Chandi was saying, 'Oh, she's such a nice lady, and the house is gorgeous!' SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. She had this terrible fear of fire." Id love to be a fly on the wall when David and Victoria Beckham meet their sons fiancees family. In any case, their friendship ended in tragedy that October, when Duke ran him over as he was opening the gate of Rough Point. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. 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. Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. A. once a week wherever we were. ". 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. And then he was going to A.A., and he did very well in A.A., as far as I know. 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. The balance is due Wednesday. I turned and saw her on the floor. 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. Phyllis Saretta says, "Chandi told me that her sister had a butler and a chauffeur and the whole thing. 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. Column: 15 minutes of fame flies by. Last year she gave. All; Titles; TV Episodes; Celebs; Companies; Keywords; Chandi Duke Heffner, Self: Oh My God. Nor was she a crazy eccentric. Miss Duke's will went on: "I am extremely troubled by the realization that Chandi Heffner may use my 1988 adoption of her (when she was 35 years old) to attempt to benefit financially under the . After Tirella's death, she seemed consumed with the idea of actually becoming a performer. "And believe me, she didn't get to $1.3 billion without working at it. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. In fact, it was Chandi Heffner who hired Bernard Lafferty for Doris Duke, in 1987. 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. ", "What struck me about Chandi was her hairit came all the way down below her waist," says Phyllis Saretta of her first meeting with Chandi Heffner.