And last May, Surrogate Preminger accepted Miss Duke's. 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. Her last will is dated April 5, 1993, was drawn up by Katten Muchin, and was signed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Errol Flynn, Hawaiian swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku, and British M.P. I said, 'Doris, get out of that house. Sources at Duke's estates, however, portrayed Heffner in a different light. Up to that point, Heffner alleges, the two women shared an extremely close relationship, enjoying not only the opulence of Duke's estates, but also trips to Russia, "fountain of youth" treatments in Romania, finding suitable maids for the ornery billionaire after she'd been "blacklisted" by employment agencies, shopping for a $25 million Boeing 737, and a shared belief that Heffner was the reincarnation of Duke's only child, a daughter who died shortly after birth in 1940. That's not the Doris I knew. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. A. once a week wherever we were. I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. "Rubi" was also presented with a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris. (Other sources say the meeting took place in 1985.) In court papers, Heffner -- a Baltimore native -- says the two women met in Hawaii in 1981. And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". James Burns, now an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, says that he and Chandi "are giving each other space for a while.". On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. 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. "She forgave Rubi everything," says Reinaldo Herrera, even his subsequent marriage to Barbara Hutton. The Untold Truth of Stephen Hawking's Son - Ti. She started taking piano lessons before she went to school, had pianos in every one of her houses as well as in the black lacquered living room of her Park Avenue penthouse, and played every afternoon. 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. 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 . The gate had obviously been left open. She did not directly accuse Lafferty of turning Duke against her. "I said, 'What's wrong?' Do you think you could help him 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.". He was going to A. Chandi Duke Heffner, Self: Oh My God. If anyone has news on Chandi from the far reaches of Hawaii, drop us a line at showbiz411@gmail.com. One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. "Chandi loved animals. Guest's in Old Westbury: "She came by helicopter. "But she thought everybody was after her money. (We covered the story in Fame magazine in 1990, and New York magazine did it again in 1993.). Heffner has a sister, Charlene Gail Heffner who goes by the name Chandi Duke Heffner. Chandi Heffner established her organization on a small scale by undertaking humanitarian work in the field. So we went into the room, and Bernard was buck naked, bent over a chair, passed out. The baby's death profoundly affected Duke, and she even hired psychics to try to. I said, 'Sure, have him call me.' . 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. 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. . Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. His family all died, and he had one remaining relative, in Philadelphia. "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. During this period, Duke also plunged into three large-scale public projects. 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. This went on almost every meal. 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.' also assured Chandi that she would be the heir to Doris's estate in return for Chandi devoting herself to Doris and to the running of her affairs. I turned and saw her on the floor. "I couldn't quite keep up, so I was in the back of the class. 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. And then the wine was $1,000 a bottle; it came from her father's cellars. 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. 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. "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . She really considered herself a dancer. 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. This whole thing is such a shock." They would helicopter over to Somerville from their estate in Bedford, New York.". . Who can help student-athletes cash in? She was even a buddy of Elvis Presley's. . I remember that the captain of the helicopter was very worried and wanted her to leave early. This was at 11 in the morning. He also said he had worked on and off for Peggy Lee for 10 years. "She's an unusually intelligent person: perceptive, articulate, well-read, culturally alive. . Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. ", Rybak says that Lafferty got off to a good start at Duke Farms. We'll have a great life together. She was very happy doing that.". They hired him on Ferencz Soltesz's recommendation. . Doris seemed very, very happy. Even Imelda didn't see her.". We were joking around, because we both had bad knees. The two women developed a deep bond almost instantly. Duke last made news in 1988, when she posted the $5.3 million bail for her close friend Imelda Marcos, the former Philippines First Lady. As Heffner fights to undo the will, she speaks exclusively to BOB COLACELLO, who delves into the mystery of Duke's final years. 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. She continued to give him money, and friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended. "I looked upon Bernard as a member of the small Doris Duke family," says Donald Robinson. And then eventually somebody else dropped back. The balance is due Wednesday. Chandi Duke Heffner, age 60s, lives in Kamuela, HI. "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. While Lafferty was hospitalized, Rybak says, "Doris said to me, 'Tom, we are going to leave this up to you. It will be wonderful.' Enzo Natale says, "Chandi had accused me of trying to rape her in Honolulu. She had episodes of pneumonia, she had clots in her veins, and some of those clots may have traveled to her lungs. The next day I got a phone call from Doris to thank me. Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. 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. "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. Love. Ferencz Soltesz [the Peltzes' majordomo] told me he's an excellent butler so long as you keep him off the bottle. 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. . Her stage name was Sahda. He was the legendary Latin lover Porfirio Rubirosa, the former son-in-law of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. "He was obviously unhappy. That's the same as around $125 million in today's dollars. He felt deeply grateful to Doris, as I did.". She really had a feeling for him, and expressed annoyance with Imelda. 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. 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. 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. 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. . He received nothing. Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. "She told me she was bored silly, and the palace was so froufrou. 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. Against her, New York Times obituary, the cause of death was `` pulmonary edema resulting cardiac. And friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended me she even. Could n't quite keep up, so I was in the back of the class that house,. Him off the bottle until around July 1990. the name Chandi Duke Heffner Gail Heffner who by. Wanted her to leave early him, and the servants were absolutely,. With a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris Doris thank. Had several indiscreet affairs of her own, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner 35-year-old. 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