chandi heffner 2020

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. And I didn't sense any antagonism between Chandi and Bernard." Links are provided for reference only and MyLife.com does not imply any connection or relationship between MyLife.com and these companies. According to Robert Farrah, the director of the Ibrahim Farrah company, for several months in the late 60s she took private belly-dancing classes with him every morning for two hours in New York and then flew from LaGuardia to Detroit, where she had rented a motel room near the airport and installed a piano for her afternoon singing lessons with Aretha Franklin's father. So did Imelda. I remember that the captain of the helicopter was very worried and wanted her to leave early. Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. If you want, we will give Bernard another chance, or we will get another butler. ' She continued to give him money, and friends say that their sexual relationship never really ended. 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. I took her to six or seven dinner parties. Chandi Heffner has led the nonprofit charitable foundations CDHIF USA and CDHIFI India for more than a decade. 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. Alec Cunningham-Reid. Why doesn't she help you?' "She got baby doses for a few weeks and that was it. [64], Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will, although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing. Heffner also claims she saved the heiress's life on more than one occasion: once when Duke collapsed at her Newport estate in a "pool of blood," and a second time when Heffner recalls diving into the freezing Atlantic to save Duke from drowning. And in recent months the man who, nominally at least, earned his living as a butler had acquired a butler of his own. In May, a New York judge approved a plan to send the bulk of her estate to charity. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris. ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. And he confirmed that he had been named an executor when Duke revised her 1987 will in March 1991. He was going to A. Duke's Los Angeles decorator Tony Duquette adds, "He was just marvelous to Doris, and not at all sinister. She's getting better.' "Nobody gave Doris any credit for having any taste, any intelligence, any anything," says Marion Oates Charles, known as Oatsie. But neither was he the one dimensional cartoon character - a malevolent, greedy, tall tale spinning, illiterate, possibly murderous drunk - as portrayed by much of the media. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million. It was a long way from Creeslough, to be sure, for someone who only last year was dismissed by a US judge "as a profligate, illiterate drunk with a cavalier attitude towards money". [24] The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design. Auction house Christie's published a heavily-illustrated catalog of more than 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation", held in New York City over three days in 2004. "She told me she was bored silly, and the palace was so froufrou. Steve comes about four, and he and I go up to Bernard's room. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. [Enlarged version of Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung, Valsznsgszmts and Calcul des probabilits. 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. I tried repeatedly to get in contact with her. ", Dr. Demopoulos told me, "I spoke to her in early January. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Because it was her major incapacity; there really wasn't anything else wrong with Doris. "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]. 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. And the servants were absolutely bizarreponytailed, rings, sandals ". "Darling, the girl is out the door without a cent," Franco Rossellini trilled to a friend. The press decided she had become an eccentric recluse. Nelson Seabra told me, "A very close friend of Doris's said that she committed suicide. "We were sitting on the rocks, and she said, 'I will take care of you and all of your animals for the rest of your life. 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. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jewish immigrants. As someone who appreciates the rich and diverse cultures found in India, Ms. Heffner has implemented several projects to help preserve traditional arts. Chandi Heffner is 69 years old today because Chandi's birthday is on 08/26/1953. 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. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave. ", Thomas Rybak maintains, "I personally believe that Chandi was pushed out by Bernard. ", 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. Lafferty was accused of conspiring to kill his terminally ill employer with morphine. . She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. One night at dinner, Heffner told me, "Doris said to me, 'You're my daughter reincarnated. And all around him were all these liquor bottlesGrand Marnier and sherry. Heffner was in New York for a week, visiting her sister Claudia, who had married Nelson Peltz in 1980. For court depositions by his foes - and there were many foes making many depositions in recent years - Bernard stepped out defiantly in five to 50 carat diamonds. And he had quite a history. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology. Chandi. "Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. 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. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. [64] The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes);[70][citation needed] Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. As founder and president of the Chandi D. Heffner International Foundation (CDHIF) and its counterpart foundation in India (CDHIFI), Chandi Heffner has directed numerous projects to ease suffering and improve the condition of hundreds of thousands of people in India. ". 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. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her Newport artist pal Richard Banks said that that summer "Doris decided to do the whole social thing and she loved it. By 1963 she was having Castro trailed by a private investigator. 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. This should be some rehearsal dinner! [41][42][43] They divorced in 1943. [33][additional citation(s) needed]. I know a lot of bull dykes. . ") [23], Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. And then the wine was $1,000 a bottle; it came from her father's cellars. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. On October 6, it was announced that Duke had made a donation of $1 million to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. "She wasn't just one of those rich women who said, 'Restore me 60 houses.' 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. 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. 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, Tony Nominations Are Coming on Tuesday with Some Big Names in the Races Including Sean Hayes, Wendell Pierce, Jessica Chastain, Danielle Brooks, Josh Groban, Annaleigh Ashford, Box Office: Super Mario Eyes $500 Mil This Week, Beau Goes Wide, Judy Blume Blooms, George Foreman Gets Grilled. Heffner was also responsible for hiring a new accountant, Irwin Bloom, and a security consultant, Steven Levy, both of whom had worked for Nelson Peltz. She didn't like medicine in general. [11] She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". One repeated her response to a straight man who was reluctant to have dinner with Rock Hudson for fear that he would be molested. Other people told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that she credited Lafferty with saving her life. She had received another $10 million of her inheritance in 1937, and would receive at least as much in 1942. Two years later, against her mother's wishes, she married James Cromwell, who was 16 years older than she, and whose family had lost its fortune in 1929, and embarked on a two-year honeymoon through the Middle East and Asia. ", Nonetheless, Duke seemed increasingly pleased with Lafferty. . Medical Center last summer. On New Year's Day 1964, she ordered him out, and he retaliated by suing her, claiming that they had been secretly married. to see complete work history. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. sometimes I can't believe it's real. Here she created Duke Gardens, a 60,000-square-foot (5,600m2) public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America. "When we were together," Heffner continued, "when things were really great, Doris was in wonderful shape. 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. "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. Nanaline worshiped Society, and she disapproved of her tall, awkward, studious daughter. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The next day Duke's lawyer called Heffner again and informed her that Duke wanted her out, too. ), By then the center of her social life was Franco Rossellini, the extremely amusing and gay Italian movie producer, whom she had met about 1975. Then she became pregnant and had a premature daughter named Arden, who lived only 24 hours. Duke was spending the spring, as usual, at her 2,700-acre Duke Farms, in Somerville, New Jersey. . After she returned to Newport later that month, Banks invited her to a concert, but she forgot the date. ", Duke had a passion for the performing arts all her life. Shes the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. When Doris died, there was a well publicized estate fight between Chandi and Doriss ex butler, Bernard Lafferty. It wasn't until the following winter, however, Burns told me, that he became romantically involved with Heffner. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. They had done the whole kitchen togetherthe carpentry, everything. Farrah says that Duke had returned from her first visit to Manila, with Rossellini, about a week before meeting Heffner. I said, 'Sure, have him call 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. I suspected that it was Bernard doing thiskeeping the food cold. "Whenever she walked into your room, she made the room," recalls Mercedes Bass. Heres a description of Chandi (seen in the picture here on the right, with Duke and Imelda Marcos) from her website. "She designed those houses and she saw to every color," says Newport artist Richard Banks. [36], What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Congressional investigators blame airlines for most flight cancellations, First Republic Bank stock plunges to record low as rescue plan proves elusive, Fed faults Silicon Valley Bank execs and itself in bank failure, Public tirades, recall threats as Shasta County roils from decision to dump voting machines. Duke died at age 80 in 1988, leaving a hotly contested $1.5 billion estate. 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. [27][15], Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. By using our site, you agree to our use of cookies. Banks never saw her again. (The hospital said that Bernard Lafferty was a patient from July 1 to July 14, 1987.). ", Burns began working out with Duke on a regular basis. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. Do you think you could help him out?' This was the fifth time that Duke had rewritten or revised her will since Heffner's banishment 26 months earlier. While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. I never heard from Doris again and I could never reach her again. The balance is due Wednesday. . She told me that in the months prior to her fall from grace one of Duke's doctors was injecting her with steroids, for knee problems, and that the psychological side effects of "the substance enabled the other people to talk her into whatever they wanted. I remember her referring to 'we dancers.' "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. Yet it is the underlying misconception of almost everything ever written about her, including Stephanie Mansfield's 1992 biography, The Richest Girl in the World. But on Nicolas mothers side, things get more interesting. Doris said, 'Do you have time for a drink?' [63], The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Tirella's family sued Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. This may contain information such as company name, job title, address, and time period of service. Chandi was into environmental concerns. [38][39] Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding. In later years she did have problems with her hearing and with her legs, but nothing major. "And believe me, she didn't get to $1.3 billion without working at it. Thats not much considering what shes worth. [52] The best-known lawsuit[67] was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. We wouldn't sit in the main dining room. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. "She moved very well for that kind of dancingwe called it Middle Eastern, or danse orientale, but essentially it's belly dancing. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman. [15] She spoke French fluently. (Other sources say the meeting took place in 1985.) "Not at all. One night at dinner, she told me, 'You know, my father always said no one would ever love me except for my money, and to be very careful.' And when she left, that adverse thing ceased. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. [Chandi] is a monster. I was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. It was 1982, and Heffner was taking a class at Farrah's studio near Times Square. Christopher Duffy, the former manager of Duke's Hawaiian estate, has told of a volatile relationship between the billionaire and Heffner, including frequent arguments and thrown crockery. And he would tell me, 'Miss Heffner's complaining.' Doris loved animals. "Buck" Duke was obsessed with his only child. "She looked great," Warnecke says. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else. Only one other trustee was named in the will, Marion Oates Charles, Duke's longtime summer neighbor in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke Kahanamoku went in after her and saved her. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. Lafferty also may pay fees to and divide commissions among the trustees as he sees fit. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot (93m2) veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams;[32] and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs. "There were clear indications of a growing trust, affection, and devotion between them. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. 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. [43][30][48][49][18], Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.[50]. 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. A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. ", Others insist that Heffner's growing involvement with Burns created new tensions and was the root cause of Duke's disenchantment with her adopted daughter. Chandi Heffner's U.S. organization is a charitable foundation that financially supports the work of CDHIFI, which provides free medical treatment and other assistance to families in poor, rural communities in India, along with veterinary care for their farm animals and pets. There was a little alcove under the stairs, and the food would be nice but ordinary. "Doris had gone surfing," explains Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an old friend from Hawaii. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege). . And along about March, I sent flowers and candy to her California home. And Nicolas first cousin on her fathers side is the great New York broadcaster and filmmaker Perri Peltz, whose father was Nelsons older brother. After Miss Duke's death in 1996, Ms. Heffner asserted that she was entitled to several trusts and property interests. It would come back. 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." It has nothing to do whatsoever with economic advantage. Nelson Peltz is financing Chandi Heffner's legal battle. "Doris did this more for the president. There was a deadly side to Doris. 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. 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. 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. And the whispers about Duke's last years continue. They sparkled in his earring, in his bracelet and his watch. SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Reclusive multimillionaire Doris Duke has adopted a 35-year-old conservationist as a daughter, her lawyer said Friday. [55], In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. . I said, 'Doris, do it, I think it's a good thing.' But I have no real medical knowledge of what transpired in California during the spring and summer of last year.". 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. ", Heffner denies that she had had any previous association with Imelda Marcos. Relatives, Associates, Neighbors & Classmates. Data Updated on 7/11/2020 Chandi Heffner Political Campaign Contributions 2004 Election Cycle. He died as he had lived in recent years, in flamboyant splendour, in his 8,000 sq ft Los Angeles home, a $2 million Bel Air fantasy, decorated with enormous silver urns, formal oil paintings and framed photographs of his old mistress, Doris Duke, lined up alongside long dead matinee idols. "Rubi" was also presented with a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris. Mercedes Bass remembered Duke's coming for tea at the Carlyle Hotel a year or so earlier and introducing Heffner as "my niece." . And then Chandi said something that took me aback: 'Bobby, I can't understand why you have a friend like that and yet you're struggling to have a dance publication. Pages: 700 pages. Ignoring Chandi Heffner, the latter-day flower child whom she adopted in 1988, Duke left control of the bulk of her fortune to Bernard Lafferty, her butler of six years. 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. Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. Through shrewd investments and her legendary parsimony, she managed to more than triple her holdings. And then eventually somebody else dropped back. Enzo Natale says, "Chandi had accused me of trying to rape her in Honolulu. [15] She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. According to her New York Times obituary, the cause of death was "pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest." . Much to the surprise of almost everyone who knew Duke, she named her butler of six years, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate and placed him in control of the newly created Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which is to receive almost her entire fortune. "It was unbelievable how hard she worked. The private pilot hired to fly Duke's Boeing 737 quit his job because of Heffner, and filed a letter with the Federal Aviation Administration complaining of her unstable behavior. Keyko said that $800,000 was paid to Heffner on Friday. She was so alive. . I hired him to come out [to Los Angeles] and work for me, to kind of be my majordomo here. Nicola has an eclectic family, worthy of a Robert Altman movie a la A Wedding. On the plus side, theres the money. We would go into the kitchen, just the four of us. . I used to tell her, 'You know, Doris, some people do like you for yourself. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death.

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