Kith and kin fight over Luciano's riches

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

London (ANI): It seems that the crucial 'property' concerns sparked off by Luciano Pavarotti's death have come true. The settlement of Luciano Pavarotti's 250 million pounds fortune is likely to be battled by his family; after it surfaced that the opera legend had changed his will just weeks before his death. Recent reports claim that the tenor changed his will last month in favour of Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana, his daughters from his first marriage.

Now, friends expect a fierce dispute between his second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani and his daughters from his first marriage over who gets what from the opera singer's fortune, which includes several properties in New York, Monte Carlo and his home town of Modena. “It"s all very sad — he isn"t even cold in his tomb yet and now all this is coming out," The Sun quoted Professor Andrea Strata, Pavarotti"s dietologist, as saying.

According to sources, relations between Pavarotti and Nicoletta had “cooled" in the months before his death last week aged 71. Insiders say that the tenor visited a lawyer to change his will in favour of his daughters with whom, they say, he had recently grown closer. Pavarotti is said to have told one pal, “Nicoletta doesn"t respect me", and confirmed to another that they were “thinking of separating".

According to friends, the singer had also grown closer to his first wife Adua Veroni, with whom their daughters sided after he left her to marry Nicoletta. Pavarotti, 71, died on Sep 6 at his home in Modena, Northern Rome, after losing his long battle with cancer.