. Today, Chandi lives on a palatial farm in. ", 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. We would hear it, and we would just joke about it. It was at that juncture, Heffner claims, that Duke made the oral promise that is the basis of her breach-of-contract suit. This was at 11 in the morning. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. Heffner told me that Duke was annoyed with Rossellini for falling behind on the rent on the New Jersey guesthouse. Some questioned Reubens sexuality at the time until in 1989 when Reubens engaged in a "mock wedding" with Chandi Heffner, the adopted daughter of tobacco heiress Doris Duke. 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. Enzo Natale says, "Chandi had accused me of trying to rape her in Honolulu. Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." Duke. 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 didn't like medicine in general. James Burns, 32, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday, claimed Chandi Gail Heffner Duke owes him half of the $66 million she was awarded after Duke die in 1988. Heffner also said that as next of kin she would have requested an autopsy, but she was never officially notified of Duke's death, and by the time she learned of the cremation, it was too late. Musks master plan for Tesla is built around sustainable energy economy, What to expect from Elon Musks third master Tesla plan, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Yet more rain expected to hit California in March. "She out-Leona Helmsleyed Leona Helmsley," Duffy said of Heffner. (Burns dismisses reports that he was once a Chippendales dancer: "Not that I haven't been asked. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. He had also treated Chandi Heffner, and counted both women as friends. 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. 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. In any case, their friendship ended in tragedy that October, when Duke ran him over as he was opening the gate of Rough Point. In the morning, Bernard didn't come down until 11:30, and he was a mess. Her lawyer, David Keyko, said yesterday that in. Both Heffner and her lawyers emphatically deny that Nelson Peltz is financing Heffner's legal efforts. They would helicopter over to Somerville from their estate in Bedford, New York.". This gives her the air of philanthropy. I thought she was really nice, genuine.". ", 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. Charlene Gail Heffner goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. 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. How do we get rid of her? He was very good at repairing old costumes and fabric. She got right up like a trouper and fell right down again. Chandi lives on the horse farm now and operates a very modest charity called the CDH Foundation, with total assets of $ 2 million. He said the couple, who lived together from 1990 until 1993, agreed that Burns would be not only be her confidante-companion but ``cook, body guard, security specialist and assist in financing any claims Heffner Duke may find it necessary to bring to enforce her rights against Doris Duke.. Then one day in June, Miss Duke called me and said, 'Thomas, have you seen Bernard? In her will, Duke requested that no funeral or memorial service be held for her. And he called from a pay phone, and I felt so sorry for this guy, I said, 'Come to Somerville.' 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. Demopoulos said that Duke had mentioned her suspicions that she was being poisoned. . I feel in danger.' There were four witnesses, including Dr. Charles Kivowitz, a fashionable Beverly Hills internist. ", Heffner wryly noted that Bernard Lafferty, accompanied by a bodyguard and chauffeur, had sat through her depositions wearing a five-carat-diamond earring, a diamond bracelet, and a diamond watch. Lafferty was accused of conspiring to kill his terminally ill employer with morphine. And he had quite a history. 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 . You're Arden. '" (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. ". 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. Later on we would sleep together and Doris would come in most mornings and sit there on the bed with us and talk. We knock, we bang, we yell. The two camels were right outside the dining room on a blue tarpaulin. Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). Newsom Closes California Theaters, "Dancing with the Stars" Needs a New Partner: Longtime Host Tom Bergeron Told Goodbye By ABC, Along with CoHost Erin Andrews, The Weeknd, Already on the Outs with the Grammys, Goes After Rolling Stone So They Rip Apart His New Show (Got That? She was wearing a dark-blue turtleneck, old Levi's, cotton socks, and scruffy moccasins. She was very into the ritualistic part of Hawaiian dance. . There's no question that Bernard was more than just a butler. Believing that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden, Duke bought her a million-dollar ranch in Hawaii, and . I think this was the steroid thing happening. On the last day of the seminar, he spent the afternoon with Duke at Shangri La. Movies. For Industry Professionals. I think she did it to make James jealous. ''Doris and I had been in the Gobi Desert together, and we found out they were becoming a threatened species." 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 . What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? "There was a rumor that she did it deliberately. Who can help student-athletes cash in? "She told me she was bored silly, and the palace was so froufrou. Lafferty has released few details about Duke's final illness. Instead, she was cremated during the weekend following her death, and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean off Shangri La on November 17, 1993, by Bernard Lafferty and Johnny Gomez, along with the hibiscus leis she loved. ", 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. We'll have a great life together. '", In 1947 she married again, but handed the groom a prenuptial agreement at the altar. ", Rybak says that Lafferty got off to a good start at Duke Farms. Lee told me, "Ten or 15 years ago, I went to sing in the Versailles Room at the old Bellevue, and Bernard was the manager of the room, and we became friends. ", Donald Robinson, a New Jersey lawyer who had worked closely with Duke since the early 70s, will not comment about the lawsuit, but he speaks glowingly of Heffner's abilities. After giving the matter prolonged and serious consideration, I am convinced that I should not have adopted Chandi Heffner. She grew up near Towson, an upper-middle-class suburb of Baltimore, and graduated from Notre Dame Prep, a private Catholic girls' school, in 1971. Friends of Duke have intimated that the heiress had become fearful of Heffner's behavior, and eventually locked her out of the Hawaiian estate in early 1991. Duke is portrayed by her adopted daughter as a lonely, paranoid recluse in need of constant care. Chandi Duke Heffner, Self: Oh My God. . According to a half-page biography released by Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, Bernard Lafferty was born in Ireland in 1945 and immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago. Nelson Seabra told me, "A very close friend of Doris's said that she committed suicide. 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 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. His breath almost knocked me off my feet.' In November 1991, Duke had a new will written, naming Irwin Bloom and Chemical Bank as executors. Peltz, a Michael Milken protg, was beginning his rise to the top of the junk-bond heap; he would soon take over Triangle Industries, then National Can and American Can, and be worth $400 million by 1989. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Heffner has a sister named Charlene Gail Heffner aka Chandi Duke Heffner. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. She has completely wired the small house on her own, and she boards horses and cows for neighbors for $15 a head per month. I remember that most: that she seemed very happy with her life at that period. Heffner spent almost six months on and off in two Honolulu hospitals, because she also developed a heart problem. ", According to Farrah, Heffner never actually took part in a dance class, because her leg was in a cast. Lafferty also may pay fees to and divide commissions among the trustees as he sees fit. 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. When tobacco heiress Doris Duke died last October, she left a will that shocked even those who had known her best. She thought it was very amusing. 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. "He was obviously unhappy. She was not on steroids in the latter half of 1990, and this was not a mood swing. Her telephone was not listed in the Los Angeles area. He was cooking and she was serving. Duke was the only child of J.B. "Buck" Duke, who founded the American Tobacco Co. and later endowed Duke University in Durham, N.C. "Cromwell was quite nice," says Nelson Seabra, a rich Brazilian friend of Duke's. 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. Now, please understand that I'm not accusing anyone of anything.". A. once a week wherever we were. Newport police declared it an accident, and her friends still swear that it was. Chandi Duke Heffner is known for Oh My God (2009). Surrogate Court Judge Wilfred P. Diana asked Duke if she understood that the adoption "creates a relationship between you and Miss Heffner as if she were born to you in wedlock," and Duke said yes. Most of Duke's friends hadn't had an inkling. I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her. She was ahead of her time. She also asked to be buried at sea. It would be the last time the paparazzi caught her, and, true to form, she slapped Rossellini for not telling her the photographers would be there. Talent. We'll travel together. 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. Nicolas mother, Claudia, has a sister we havent forgotten about. 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. The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. Of course, many of the sources for these allegations are people who were left out of the will, or cut out of the will, or people who hope to eventually receive grants from the Duke foundations. Heffner takes credit for everything from improving the dairy herd at Duke Farms to arranging the sale of Duke's gold deposits in Switzerland. . Doris seemed very, very happy. Heffner Duke, adopted in 1988 when she was 38 and the heiress was in her 70s, could not be reached for comment. Chandi Heffner In 1984, Doris met a woman named Chandi Heffner in Hawaii. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. Help Center Contributor Zone Polls. 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. . And the whispers about Duke's last years continue. . 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. ", She had already been planning to divorce Cromwell, but he apparently demanded a $7 million settlement. Her former physician, Dr. Harry Demopoulos, is seeking to unseat Lafferty as co-executor. 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. "Doris did this more for the president. "I said, 'What's wrong?' In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. "She moved very well for that kind of dancingwe called it Middle Eastern, or danse orientale, but essentially it's belly dancing. And last May, Surrogate Preminger accepted Miss Duke's. I really don't know what the hell was going on, frankly. 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