Pavarotti leaves half of estate to second wife, half to 4 daughters

Italian+opera+singer+Luciano+Pavarotti+with+his+bride%2C+Nicoletta+Mantovani%2C+and+their+daughter%2C+Alice%2C+are+shown+in+this+Dec.+13%2C+2003+file+photo.+THE+ASSOCIATED+PRESS%0A

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti with his bride, Nicoletta Mantovani, and their daughter, Alice, are shown in this Dec. 13, 2003 file photo. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Marta Falconi

ROME – Luciano Pavarotti left half his estate to his second wife and half to his four daughters, including three from his first marriage, an attorney said Tuesday.

In the final months of his yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, Pavarotti made two wills, said attorney Giorgio Bernini, who represents the singer’s second wife. One dated June 13 divides up his assets according to Italian law, with half going to his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and half to his children.

The second, dated July 29, elaborates on the first and concerns the tenor’s U.S. holdings, which he entrusted to Mantovani, Bernini said.

Interest in Pavarotti’s will has mounted in the days since his Sept. 6 death at age 71 amid reports that his three adult daughters from his first marriage were squabbling with Mantovani, and that there had been a “crisis” in their marriage.

The reports prompted Pavarotti’s three adult daughters to write a letter, which one of them read on television last week, denouncing speculation about “purported bickering, phantasmagoric wealth, last wills and testaments that we don’t know anything about.”

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“Luciano Pavarotti now has his chance to speak out and, contrary to media reports and rumors, he did not change his will to the detriment of his second wife,” Pavarotti’s manager, Terri Robson, said in an e-mail.

She called the reports”a very personal and ugly campaign against his wife.”