One night when Doris Duke was 10, her father leaned across the dinner table with a disturbing prediction that no child (honestly, no adult) should ever hear. James “Buck” Buchanan Duke bluntly informed his little girl that no one would ever truly love her. No matter what she did or where she moved, people would only love Doris for her money. It was a mantra he repeated constantly.

“Buck” Duke was the founder of the American Tobacco Company. Two years after delivering that horrible dinner table prediction, Buck was dead. He died on October 10, 1925 at the age of 68. Doris was 12 years old. She was just one month shy of her 13th birthday.

Upon Buck’s death, Doris inherited a $100 million trust fund. That inheritance instantly made Doris the second richest person in the world. She was 12. The only person on the planet with a larger fortune was John D. Rockefeller.

The media soon gave Dorris a nickname that stuck with her for life:

“The richest girl in the world”

And her inheritance didn’t stop with that $100 million. In 1962 Doris inherited an additional $250 million after her mother Nanaline died. In total, Doris was worth the equivalent of $3 billion before her 40th birthday.

And despite being hounded by reporters, suitors, and grifters, “the richest girl in the world” still managed to live a vibrant, wild, life. For better or worse, Doris spent a lifetime trying to disprove her father’s dour prediction about love and money.

Duke Ellington serenades heiress Doris Duke (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Marriages and Affairs

Doris married twice. In 1935, she married a gold-digging social climber named James Cromwell. Cromwell would soon use his wife’s money to finance an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.

While they were married, Doris became pregnant. She secretly confided to friends that Cromwell wasn’t the father. The child was actually the product of an affair she had while on a cross-country train trip. “There was nothing else to do,” she told one friend. A daughter, Arden, was born prematurely and lived for just 24 hours. Doris and James Cromwell divorced in 1943.

She married again in 1947 to a diplomat from the Dominican Republic named Porfirio Rubirosa. There was one tiny obstacle before they got married. Porfirio was already married. According to legend, Doris was so head over heels for him that she offered his current wife $1 million to divorce him quickly. The offer was accepted. That would have been like being offered $12 million in today’s dollars.

Unfortunately, even after a $1 million bribe, this marriage only lasted a year. Rubirosa turned out to be a world-class womanizer who had dalliances with a number of famous women including Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Veronica Lake, Judy Garland, Eva Peron, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Fortunately, Doris had an iron-clad prenup.

However, it wasn’t his extramarital affairs that really dulled her affection for Rubirosa – it was the fact that after they divorced he married her arch-nemesis, Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. Doris and Hutton were both born into wealthy Manhattan families within a week of each other and spent their entire lives in an a heated battle. Doris could claim a victory over her rival with Rubirosa though – his marriage to Hutton only lasted 53 days.

Doris had a number of high-profile affairs as well. Her lovers included Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, British politician Alec Cunningham-Reid, and General George Patton.

Extracurricular Activities

Doris dabbled in a number of interests and careers. She studied singing with one of the most renowned voice coaches of her day. She became a member of a gospel choir.

During World War II, she worked in a canteen for soldiers in Egypt for $1 a year. She had a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent, even moving to Paris to write for Harper’s Bazaar.

While living in Hawaii, Doris became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing after learning from the best of the best, Duke Kahanamoku.

She was an animal lover and supported animal rights and conservation long before it was fashionable.

She cultivated rare and exotic flowers after learning to do so from Louis Bromfield, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and horticulturist.

Doris had a priceless art collection. She was especially passionate about Southeast Asian and Islamic art. The collection is on public display at her former estate in Hawaii, which is now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, and Design.

Here’s a video tour of the Hawaiian estate today:

Tragedy and Controversy

Doris Duke lived a wild and exciting life but it wasn’t without tragedy and scandal. In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, the curator of her art collections, told Doris he was quitting to pursue a career as a production designer in the film industry. He flew to Rough Point, Doris’ Newport, Rhode Island estate to pack his things and give her formal notice. The two were overheard having a heated argument by the estate’s staff just before they got into a station wagon to leave. According to Doris, Tirella drove the car down the driveway and stopped to get out and open the gates. He left the engine running. Doris moved over to the driver’s seat so she could pick Tirella up as they left her estate. As she was moving into the driver’s seat, she released the parking brake and accidentally hit the accelerator. The car sped forward and pinned Tirella between the station wagon and the gates. The gates soon gave way sending the car into a tree across the road and killing Tirella. Newport police ruled the death an accident. Tirella’s family sued Doris for wrongful death. They were awarded $75,000 — which was far less than they were seeking.

Here’s a Drone video of Rough Point:

Doris never married again after her second marriage failed. She never had children. But she did have deep, personal relationships with two people that would change the course of all of their lives.

Chandi Heffner

In 1984, Doris met a woman named Chandi Heffner in Hawaii. The two women developed a deep bond almost instantly.

For some reason, Doris actually came to believe that Chandi was the reincarnation of her daughter Arden. The two traveled the world together, enjoying Doris’ wealth. They spent time in Russia, went to Romania for “fountain of youth” treatments, shopped for a $25 million Boeing 737, and adopted two camels after Doris learned they were an endangered species. Chandi managed Doris’s staff and advised her on financial matters. They were inseparable and traveled between Doris’s huge New Jersey farm, her Newport, Rhode Island estate, and “Shangri-La,” her palatial property on Oahu, Hawaii.

Here’s where it gets weird: Doris adopted Chandi in 1988. Why is that weird? Chandi was 35 years old. She also reportedly promised to take care of Chandi in the manner she’d become accustomed to for the rest of her life and make her the executor of her will.

But something changed and Doris cut Chandi out of her life and her will in 1991.

Bernard Lafferty

Ironically, it was Chandi who brought the other significant relationship of Doris’ senior years into their lives when she recommended Bernard Lafferty as a butler. Bernard had formerly worked for Chandi’s sister Charlene who had recently married billionaire Nelson Peltz. Bernard was Irish and an orphan who emigrated to the U.S. when he was 35. Doris hired him as her butler in 1987. He endeared himself to Doris and became her closest confidant and constant companion.

Doris Duke died on October 28, 1993 at the age of 80. Upon her death Bernard was put in charge of the estate.

At the time of her death, Doris had a total net worth of $5.3 billion. This included her cash and investments, homes in New Jersey, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Beverly Hills, her jewelry, and her art collection, which in addition to her Southeast Asian and Islamic holdings, included works by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. She had a collection of rare wine –more than 2,000 bottles valued at over $5 million.

According to the terms of her will, the vast majority of Doris’ fortune went to charity. Today the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation controls assets worth approximately $2 billion. The Foundation has already given away $1.84 billion in its roughly 30 years of existence.

Chandi was left $0.

Chandi sued the estate claiming she was owed a large amount of money as Doris’ legal daughter. Amazingly, a jury agreed. Chandi was awarded $65 million in 1995. Today, Chandi lives on a ranch Doris purchased for her in Hawaii. Bernard died in 1996 of a heart attack in his sleep in his $2.1 million Bel-Air home.

It’s not totally clear if Doris’ father was right or wrong when he predicted people would only love her for her money. Or at the very least, she never stopped trying to prove him wrong.

Furniture designer Michael Amini, 64, is not a minimalist. Not by a long shot. In fact, he’s known as the “King of Bling.” Amini was an unhappy electrical engineer. His dad, John, ran a company that made kidney dialysis machines in Tehran.

After earning a degree in electrical engineering at Cal State Long Beach, Michael and went to work designing circuits for a company in Brea, California. He was bored out of his mind. He wanted to design things that people could see and appreciate. So he started designing furniture. Really frilly, blingy, ornate furniture.

Today his company, Amini Innovation Corp., also known as Aico, is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera. The company sells its products in more than 3,000 stores in 80 countries. Amini’s products are not for those on an IKEA budget. The average price of a dining room table and chairs is $5,000 to $9,000 but can run as high as $20,000 or more.

Knowing this background about Amini will prepare you for the Newport Coast home he just put on the market for $69.8 million. Look, they don’t call him the King of Bling for nothing. His home makes Donald Trump’s gold-plated New York penthouse look kind of plain.

Amini’s home is a monument to excess. The seven-bedroom home looks like a Palladian European castle with columns, decorative balconies, ornamental detailing, and grand arches. The home is called, appropriately, the Palais de Cristal. Inside, surprising details reveal themselves, such as a garage with its own sound system and smoke machine, enabling it to quickly convert into a nightclub complete with a rotating dance floor.

The home’s entry features a floor mosaic made out of Jordanian marble with an inlay of pink onyx. Looking towards the ceiling, light streams through the glass dome, with an “Eye of Phoenix,” a Swarovski crystal-encrusted eye at the center of the dome. Staircases made of handcrafted iron with 24-carat gold detailing descend on either side of the foyer and were inspired by Paris’ Peninsula hotel.

Clearly, Amini sees interior design as a fashion statement. He designed many of his home’s unusual amenities. The chandelier in the dining room, for example, is made out of 36 crystal vases. The door handles throughout the mansion were imported from Italy and are coated in 24-carat gold. The basement contains a theatre with an LED constellation on the ceiling, a bar made out of green glass tiles, a glass pool table, and a gym. The office has maple and brass cabinets.

The 15,500 square foot estate overlooks the Pacific ocean and also has a large family room, a spa with a wet and dry sauna and a massage room. The house also features an elevator. For the pool, he brought in specialists from England who had worked with Middle Eastern royalty to create the tile mural at the bottom of the pool. The mural features underwater scenes at both sunrise and sunset.

Amini bought the undeveloped land where the home stands today in 2007 for $5.1 million. He had to temporarily postpone the project when the global financial crisis hit in 2008. He really got going on construction in 2013. He only recently finished the home and though he originally planned for this to be his home, in the time it took to finish, his children grew up and moved out. So the house is just too big for just Michael and his wife. He is selling the house fully furnished.

The $69.8 million price tag is not too far-fetched for the area, especially since it comes fully furnished—even if those furnishings are tailored to a very specific design aesthetic. Last year, author Dean Koontz sold his home in Orange County, California for $50 million. A house on the same street as Amini’s sold earlier this year for $41 million.

Art heists are fascinating. That’s why they make such a good subject for movies. “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Monument Men,” “Entrapment,” “Ocean’s Twelve,” and “Hudson Hawk,” are just a few of my favorite examples. In reality, modern museums have incredibly advanced and complicated security systems.

That said, there is one infamous art heist where, even with a relatively decent security system, thieves made off with more than a billion dollars worth of art… arguably a priceless haul.

It all went down in the morning of March 18, 1990.

Security guards for Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum allowed two men in police uniforms to enter the museum, bypassing several locked doors and security features. The supposed police officers claimed to be responding to a disturbance call. They tied the guards up and proceeded to spend the next 81 minutes looting the museum.

Over 30 years later and the case has never been solved. No arrests have ever been made. And none of the pieces of art have ever been recovered, not even on the black market.

How The Museum Came To Exist

Isabella Stewart Gardner lived from 1840 to 1924. She was born into extreme wealth as the daughter of linen merchant David Stewart.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened in 1903 to house the private collection of future masterpieces that Isabelle collected in her world travels. When Isabella died in 1924, she also left the museum a $3.6 million endowment. That’s the same as around $60 million in today’s dollars, on top of a priceless collection of art.

Her will stated that no items could be sold or brought into the collection and the arrangement of the artwork was to remain unchanged.

By the early 1980s, the museum was running low on funds and the building was falling into disrepair. It had no climate control system and no insurance policy. Nonetheless, after the FBI uncovered a robbery plot in 1982 the museum upgraded its security system.

Sixty infrared motion detectors were installed in the inside the museum. The exterior was protected by four cameras connected to a closed-circuit television system. No cameras were actually put inside the building due to the expense of doing so in a historical building. The only way the police could be called to the museum was via a button at the security desk. Other museums, for instance, required the night watchman to call the police every hour to let them know all was well.

(RYAN MCBRIDE/AFP via Getty Images)

Independent security consultants and the security director at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts reviewed the system at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1988 and recommended additional, major improvements. Unfortunately the museum simply couldn’t afford the upgrades PLUS Gardner’s will restricted major renovations, so the museum’s board of trustees did not approve the security enhancements. The board also rejected a motion to pay the guards more to attract more qualified candidates. The guards they had were paid just a bit more than minimum wage. All of the museum’s security guards were well aware of the deficiencies in the security at the museum.

The Robbery

On the night of March 18, 1990, the guards on duty were 23-year-old Rick Abath and 25-year-old Randy Hestand. It was Hestand’s first time working the night shift. While Abath was patrolling the premises fire alarms started going off, but he couldn’t find any smoke or fire. The fire alarm control panel in the security room indicated there was smoke in a number of rooms. He figured the system was malfunctioning and turned it off. He went back on patrol and stopped at the side door to the museum to open and close it. He returned to the security desk around 1 am. Hestand then went on his rounds, per museum protocol.

At 1:20 am, the thieves dressed as cops rang the buzzer on the side door. That connected them to Abath via intercom. They told him they were police investigating a disturbance. Abath could see them on the closed-circuit television that they were wearing police uniforms. As it was St. Patrick’s Day, he figured some drunk partier had climbed over the fence and been spotted. He let them in. They asked Abath to come out from behind the desk, he complied – which put him too far from the button to alert the actual police. He was forced against the wall and handcuffed. Hestand soon returned to the room and he too was handcuffed. Duct tape was wrapped around the head and eyes of the guards and they were taken to the basement and handcuffed to a pipe.

The thieves spent the next 81 minutes raiding the museum. Their movements through the building were recorded on the infrared motion detectors. They began taking art off the walls and throwing it on the ground to break the glass so they could cut the canvasses out. They went to the security office and took the videotapes of their entrance on the closed-circuit cameras as well as the printouts from the motion detectors. They exited the side entrance at 2:45 am. When the morning shift guards arrived they realized something was amiss when no one was responding to the buzzer to let them in. They called the security director and once he realized no one was at the security desk, he called the police. The police found the guards still handcuffed and duct-taped up in the basement.

The Most Valuable Stolen Item In The World

In total, thirteen works of art were stolen including works by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, Vermeer, and Flinck. A finial from a Napoleonic flag and a piece of Chinese pottery were stolen. At the time, the value of these items was $200 million. That figure jumped to $500 million by 2000 and today sits at easily over $1 billion.

Vermeer’s “The Concert” was the most valuable item stolen as he only painted 34 works. Experts have called this the most valuable stolen item in the world.

Police and art experts were confused by what was taken and what was left. For instance, the theives did not steal valuable works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, and Titian. Because Gardner’s will stipulated that the artwork never be rearranged, to this day empty frames hang where the stolen artwork once was.

Now, remember, the museum was struggling financially and had no insurance policy. Rewards via Sotheby’s and Christie’s for the return of the artwork in good condition started at $1 million and kept rising. In 2017, the reward was $10 million. The statute of limitations expired in 1995, so anyone who returns the art cannot be prosecuted.

Abath was investigated due to the odd behavior of opening and closing the side door. He said he did this regularly to make sure the door was locked. In the end, the police decided Abath and Hestand were too incompetent to have been involved. Crime boss Whitey Bulger was also investigated due to his strong ties to the Boston police which would have made it easy to procure some very authentic police uniforms. A retired art expert from Scotland Yard believes Bulger gave the art to the IRA and the pieces are probably in Ireland right now.

None of the investigations turned up anything. The police and FBI investigated an anonymous letter the museum received in 1994, a known art thief in the area, various branches of the Boston Mafia – and that revealed nothing. The only possible lead with some gravitas was mafia member Bobby Donati who was seen at a party near the museum earlier in the night with a bag filled with police uniforms. Unfortunately, Donati was murdered in 1991 during a gang war.

The investigation is still open and the museum is still offering a $10 million reward.

Contemporary Amperex Technology is a little-known but rapidly growing maker of batteries for electric vehicles. They make the batteries that go in BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen’s electric vehicles.

Perhaps more impressively to CelebrityNetWorth readers, in addition to making batteries Contemporary Amperex Technology is also pretty great at creating BILLIONAIRES. In fact, the company  has minted more billionaires than Google and Facebook… COMBINED!

As of this writing, this random Chinese battery company has minted an impressive NINE billionaires.

Google has has minted three billionaires:

Facebook has minted four:

We actually can’t think of any other company in history that has minted NINE billionaires.

Contemporary Amperex Technology was founded by Robin Zeng in 2011. It went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2017. Shares in the company are up more than 150% over the past year alone due to the increased demand for electric vehicles globally.

(Photo by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)

Let’s take a look at the nine billionaires who’ve gained that elite status due to their work with Contemporary Amperex Technology.

#9. Chen Yuantai – $1.3 billion

It’s not just investors and C-suite executives that have become billionaires. Chen Yuantai is the assistant to the President of Contemporary Amperex Technology.

#8. Chen Qiongxiang – $1.8 billion

Chen Qiongxiang is an early investor in the company.

#7. Wu Yingming – $1.9 billion

Wu Yingming is chairman of the supervisory board of the company.

#6. Wu Kai – $2.3 billion

Wu Kai is the company’s Chief Scientist and Deputy General Manager. Wu holds a Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

#5.  Zhao Fengang – $2.4 billion

Zhao Fengang is the Co-President of Engineering and Production and Co-President of Research and Development.

#4. Li Ping – $6.6 billion

Li Ping is the Vice Chairman of the company. Ping has degrees from Fudan University and the China Europe International Business School.

#3. Pei Zhenhua – $8.5 billion

Pei Zhenhua is an early investor in the company. Pei is also the founder and chairman of Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology, which was founded in 1997 and cleanroom products for high-tech manufacturing. Suzhou is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

#2. Huang Shilin – $14.7 billion

Huang Shilin is the Vice Chairman and Deputy General Manager of the company.

#1. Robin Zeng – $32.5 billion

Robin Zeng is the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Contemporary Amperex Technology. Zeng holds about 45% of the company. His net worth makes him one of the richest people in China and Hong Kong. Zeng has a Ph.D. in physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is 53-years-old. Prior to founding his battery company, he worked for a state-owned shipbuilding company in Fujian Province.

Total wealth created:

$72 billion

BamBam Net Worth: BamBam is a South-Korean-based, Thai-born rapper and singer who has a net worth of $10 million. BamBam first earned international fame as a member of the South Korean boy band Got7. He is also a social media and fashion influencer with well over 13 million followers on Instagram alone.

Early Life: BamBam was born Kunpimook Bhuwakul on May 2, 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand. He adopted the stage name BamBam as a reference to Bamm-Bamm from “The Flintstones.”

As a kid he became exposed to music through his mother. She was a huge fan of singers like Rain and brought him to several concerts. He started to learn dance at a young age then began taking singing lessons. He was even part of a dance crew called We Zaa Cool which also featured future Blackpink superstar Lisa.

In 2007 Kunpimook won first prize in the Thailand Rain Cover Dance Competition.

Career: After winning several more competitions, at the age of 13 he had moved to South Korea to become a trainee at JYP Entertainment. He spent more than three years training and practicing in what eventually became the boy band Got7.

The band was officially introduced on January 1, 2014. The group was JYP’s first boy band in 8 years.

On January 16, 2014, Got7 released a music video for the song “Girls Girls Girls.” That same month the group won the New Artist Award at the 29th Golden Disc Awards. They won a similar award at the 24th Seoul Music Awards.

In November 2014 the group released their first full-length studio album, “Identify.”

On June 10, 2015 Got7 released the single “Love Train.”

They released a second full-length album, “Moriagatteyo” in 2016. Also in 2016 they released “Flight Log: Turbulence.”

In 2018 the group released “Present: You” and in 2020 they released “Breath of Love: Last Piece.”

Departure from JYPE: On January 19, 2011 BamBam announced he was leaving JYP Entertainment upon to expiration of his contract. He soon signed a new contract with Abyss Company.

Solo Career: BamBam released his debut solo album “Ribbon” on June 15, 2021.