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. "She was told she has a pretty good case," the family member said. She formally adopted Heffner in 1988. 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 forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. Born Today Most Popular Celebs Most Popular Celebs Celebrity News. Phyllis Saretta told me that Duke performed with the Farrah company four or five times, wearing a long black wig. Bernard Lafferty, a cook named Colin Shanley, and her longtime Tongan maid, Nuku Makasiale, were at her bedside. Today, Chandi lives on a palatial farm in. She had had several leg operations, after a riding accident, but she participated in the seminar. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. 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. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. Richard Banks called Lafferty the next day. Doris Duke was murdered. "Whenever she walked into your room, she made the room," recalls Mercedes Bass. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. She is asking for compensatory and punitive damages in an unspecified amount "to support her for the rest of her life in the style she had enjoyed" while serving as a companion to the eccentric billionaire. Movies. When Doris died, there was a well publicized estate fight between Chandi and Doriss ex butler, Bernard Lafferty. We'll travel together. Lafferty was accused of conspiring to kill his terminally ill employer with morphine. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. 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. Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored eyes. . She had episodes of pneumonia, she had clots in her veins, and some of those clots may have traveled to her lungs. One night at dinner, Heffner told me, "Doris said to me, 'You're my daughter reincarnated. "Sometimes people are attracted to the thing they fear the most.". Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. (Burns dismisses reports that he was once a Chippendales dancer: "Not that I haven't been asked. All; Titles; TV Episodes; Celebs; Companies; Keywords; ", 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. She has also been involved in equestrian sports and was the owner of the horse Authentic, whose rider took home the Gold Medal in show jumping for Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympics. They named them Princess and Baby. 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. We used to joke that she'd outlive me. 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. ", After Thanksgiving, as she had for five decades, Duke left for Hawaii. Kids get annoyed with their parents.". . . And when she left, that adverse thing ceased. I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. You don't have to go back. 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 . "He was so attentive," Banks says. 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. They were putting up a curtain rod together. Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. . While Lafferty was hospitalized, Rybak says, "Doris said to me, 'Tom, we are going to leave this up to you. Meanwhile, Heffner is holed up on her Hawaiian ranch. 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 80-year-old billionaire reneged on her promise to make Heffner the sole beneficiary of her estate. This was at 11 in the morning. The first one, in Hawaii, didn't work out: she wanted to make a museum out of a Thai temple that she had saved from destruction on one of her many trips to Southeast Asia. (1940 - 1940) Photos: 19. In the car, Chandi was saying, 'Oh, she's such a nice lady, and the house is gorgeous!' Chandi said, 'But where do I find a man?' Heres a description of Chandi (seen in the picture here on the right, with Duke and Imelda Marcos) from her website. ", "When one of Doris's love affairs ended, there was always great drama," says her friend Consuelo Crespi. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. And then he was going to A.A., and he did very well in A.A., as far as I know. She wasn't Barbara Hutton," says Marina Cicogna, who was a friend of both heiresses. 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. It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. If I were Victoria Beckham, I wouldnt count on a big wedding present. There was lack of ostentation. I came back clean as a whistle. 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. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. He was born on August 27, 1952, in Peekskill, New York, USA, as Paul Rubenfeld. 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 . This was the fifth time that Duke had rewritten or revised her will since Heffner's banishment 26 months earlier. So I fixed another tray and brought it upstairs. "He was obviously unhappy. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. . . "You know, fate is strange. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. . 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. The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. She said, 'I'm very frightened. After a two-week rejuvenation cure in Romania with the controversial Dr. Anna Aslan, they stopped in London. Once a day, she meditates in her "deity room," which is filled with golden statues from India. It doesn't mean I'll go to bed with them.". He was cooking and she was serving. 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. But theyve hit a snag, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, Elizabeth Holmes cites her new baby as a reason she should avoid prison for Theranos scam. 'Doris Duke really was the last Chinese empress, the last of a type that doesn't exist anymore. The two women developed a deep bond almost instantly. He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. I was constantly arguing with Bernard . If someone crossed them, they just put them out of their lives. Sources at Duke's estates, however, portrayed Heffner in a different light. After Heffner returned to Hawaii, she kept in touch with Farrah and Saretta, and in February 1983 helped them organize a Middle Eastern dance seminar in Honolulu. I suspected that it was Bernard doing thiskeeping the food cold. . In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. 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. 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. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her. Sometimes he acted as the butler, others as a general assistant. Around Christmas, Duke rented a house in Honolulu for Martha Graham and Ron Protas. The gate had obviously been left open. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Because it was her major incapacity; there really wasn't anything else wrong with Doris. "Cromwell was quite nice," says Nelson Seabra, a rich Brazilian friend of Duke's. Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. Then [Franco and I] didn't see Doris anymore. "We discussed cremation, and she said, 'Never, never, ever let anyone cremate me.' 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. There was a deadly side to Doris. He wanted me out of there. Her first husband, James R. Cromwell, called Duke "my frigidheiress" and engaged in a lengthy court battle to win a financial settlement. . Youth," says Phyllis Saretta, an instructor with the Ibrahim Farrah Near East Dance Group, which Duke funded and danced with in the early 1970s. We came out from opposite sides of the stage, and I got to the middle and she wasn't there. Doris said, 'Do you have time for a drink?' He was the legendary Latin lover Porfirio Rubirosa, the former son-in-law of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. "It was really sad," Heffner said, "because Martha arrived and Doris wouldn't go see her. Even Imelda didn't see her.". That's not the Doris I knew. Each evening she would return to Duke Farms or her Manhattan apartment in time for dinner alone on a tray. According to the 1993 Forbes Four Hundred list, Doris Duke was the 18th-richest woman in America, not far behind cosmetics billionairess Este Lauder. Subscribers have complete access to the archive. One of those servants was the future executor of Doris Duke's estate. Nelson Seabra told me, "A very close friend of Doris's said that she committed suicide. Newport police declared it an accident, and her friends still swear that it was. One night in August, Banks dined alone with Duke at Rough Point. He always seemed to be there whenever she needed him. "Most of them didn't want to leave. (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. I feel unsure of myself physically. 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 loved her so much. She clapped her hands in glee. One evening Steve Levy said that Miss Duke wanted him to administer a urine test on me. . Chandi Heffner and Doris Duke were having a lesbian affair. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. We'll have a great life together. Chandi Heffner was "planted" on Doris Duke by Imelda Marcos. You can live in the manner that I live and have this lifestyle. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. This gives her the air of philanthropy. Her mother was another story. And I was surprised. Steve comes about four, and he and I go up to Bernard's room. I remember her referring to 'we dancers.' As the organization grew, she set up a program exclusively focused on serving people in rural communities where money, jobs, health care, and education are scarce. . They hired him on Ferencz Soltesz's recommendation. 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." "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. It was perhaps her last romantic affair, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner. 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. She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. Her stage name was Sahda. '", 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. 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. ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. One afternoon in February, the architect John Warnecke went to Shangri La for tea. "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . He could barely speak.". It happened on a train to California. Like Doris, actually." And he confirmed that he had been named an executor when Duke revised her 1987 will in March 1991. I took her to six or seven dinner parties. . No wills! "She's an unusually intelligent person: perceptive, articulate, well-read, culturally alive. ", They went into Duke's fabled Islamic Room"you'd think you were in the salon of Sleyman the Magnificent" and over tea and sherry they discussed the pet boar that Heffner had nursed with a baby bottle after it had been abandoned by its mother, as well as Heffner's leg problems. Two years later she bought Falcon's Lair, the Beverly Hills house where Rudolph Valentino once lived. Chandi Heffner Duke passed away on 1940. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . 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. She was ahead of her time. . I thought she'd live to 90 or 100. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. People get annoyed with their kids. ", 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.' He also said he had worked on and off for Peggy Lee for 10 years. He went to Sarasota High School. I fumbled through an introduction. 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. 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. Duke may have been infatuated, but friends of Tirella's told me that he was unabashedly gay. . "She designed those houses and she saw to every color," says Newport artist Richard Banks. "No cane. Chandi Duke Heffner has 24 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis by Ilia Delio, Free Your Mind by . Former son-in-law of the stage, and he and I ] did n't see Doris anymore thick black eyebrows off... 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