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. 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. It was at this time, she said, that Duke told her that she thought her food was being poisoned. For access to this information, contact I asked Doris and she said, 'Yeah, it's fine.' [3] Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Imelda stayed for a week, I think. . Duke is portrayed by her adopted daughter as a lonely, paranoid recluse in need of constant care. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion. 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 was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. ", 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. [36], After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. She died much as she lived--in secrecy, loneliness and on the edge of scandal", "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead", "James B. Duke Wills Bulk of $100,000,000 to Widow and Child", "Billionaire Twins Abused Like Slaves by Dad", "The Duke Family Fortune: Depleted By Lavish, Addiction-Fueled Spending? This went on almost every meal. But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. In addition to providing medical care, food, and veterinary care, Ms. Heffner . Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? How could they forgive him, an uneducated Irishman who carried out his duties barefoot, topped with full butler's regalia, ear stud and ponytail? There was lack of ostentation. They would helicopter over to Somerville from their estate in Bedford, New York.". 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. $473,000 in today's dollars[37] was divided among Tirella's eight siblings when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. The next day I got a phone call from Doris to thank me. She was a cool lady. It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. '", 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. "We kept it to ourselves for months, until around July 1990. . ", Duke gave him a house in Paris for a wedding gift, and a plane before their divorce one year later. There were four witnesses, including Dr. Charles Kivowitz, a fashionable Beverly Hills internist. ", Heffner blamed Duke's altered feelings on the steroids she claims Duke was taking then. The reason it didn't last long was she didn't want them. 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. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death. Duke died under mysterious circumstances in 1993 at the age of 80 (speculation ran to a morphine overdose by her butler) and left an estate, worth $1.2 billion, that included homes with furniture. Enzo Natale says, "Chandi had accused me of trying to rape her in Honolulu. [25][26], Duke acquired a number of homes. I almost feel . He went to Sarasota High School. Chandi Heffner is 69 years old today because Chandi's birthday is on 08/26/1953. This was not a frivolous woman, either. Her estate, said one family member yesterday, is valued at more than $1 billion. [19] She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory[20] at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. [69], Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. . This Grand Marnier was so old the labels had been written by hand. These are just some of the accusations, strange rumors, and conspiracy theories that I heard concerning the last years of Doris Duke's life: Her estate is really worth at least $2 billion. Chandi Heffner is a small, sturdy woman with thick black shoulder-length hair and bone-white skin, Thick black eyebrows set off her striking indigo-colored . "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]. Once Chandi was adopted she took over Dukes life. "Rubi" was also presented with a string of polo ponies and a house in Paris. Maybe the judge believed he showed poor judgment in choosing Melrose Avenue as a good spot for antique shopping sprees, or in blithely spending $1,500 to have his hair dyed "Doris Duke Blonde". In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. 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. It would come back. She wasn't about being a pretty, rich American girl. [17] In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. 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. Miss Hefner in no way needs any economic advantage, he said, adding that she owns a 300-acre horse ranch among other property. She told me during a break that she had studied reiki, a Japanese healing rite, and she said, 'Maybe I could help you with your knee.' We had a nice dinner with appropriate toasts, and Franco entertained us with anecdotes and imitations. MyLife is NOT a Consumer Reporting Agency - You may NOT use this information to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, tenancy or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. 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. This gives her the air of philanthropy. 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. Duke left most of her money to charity and named her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of the estate. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. . [52] The best-known lawsuit[67] was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. [53] In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. According to the Mansfield biography, Cromwell asked her on their sexless wedding night what his annual income from her would be. When I go I'll be eaten by the sharks.". After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar. [64], In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have a baby, but she said by the third month an incredible mother instinct took over. 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. 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. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". We were joking around, because we both had bad knees. Just last May Lafferty agreed to relinquish his control of the estate in a settlement that left him with $4.5 million in executor's fees and the half million dollar annual income. Chandi Heffner - $29,000 in Political Contributions for 2004 That was a going-out-of-your-way gesture." She flew Mrs. Marcos from Hawaii to New York in her lavish private jet to face federal racketeering charges. Lafferty also may pay fees to and divide commissions among the trustees as he sees fit. "Nobody gave Doris any credit for having any taste, any intelligence, any anything," says Marion Oates Charles, known as Oatsie. "There was a rumor that she did it deliberately. ", Oatsie Charles had a one-word explanation: "Loneliness. Most of Duke's friends hadn't had an inkling. "She told me she was bored silly, and the palace was so froufrou. Chandi Heffner is a small, sturdy woman with thick black shoulder-length hair and bone-white skin. 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. I feel in danger.' The Sands says that Lafferty managed the theater, which headlined such stars as Bill Cosby, Joel Grey, and Rita Moreno. [16] During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. But the same enemies were sad, embittered creatures to begin with. According to financial accounts shes posted on her website, she has about $700,000 parked in CDH to help India. Chandi Heffner's Biography | Muck Rack Tobacco heiress Doris Duke had hoped to preclude Chandi Heffner, adopted as an adult (at age 35) by Miss Duke, from sharing in her estate and certain family trusts. Chandi sued Dukes estate and wound up inheriting $65 million. Some of the traditional handmade Indian products that are in danger of disappearing are pottery, silk and cotton embroidery, utensils and hardware made from raw iron, wood carvings, book bindings, and horse-drawn carts. The gate had obviously been left open. "She out-Leona Helmsleyed Leona Helmsley," Duffy said of Heffner. [67] The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. [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]. 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. Chandi Heffner - $7,100 in Political Contributions for 2020, Campaign Finance, Money, American politics, American political campaign contributions, presidential campaign contributions We would be four, six, eightOatsie Charles, Nuala Pell, Minnie Cushing, Lita McBean and her husband, and Sunny and me. This stuff was from Miss Duke's father. Chandi called Steve Levyhe did security for Doristo find out what to do. [5] The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $927 million to $1.545 billion in 2021),[6] the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.[7]. 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. ", 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.
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