The women in Luciano Pavarotti's life could be in for a battle over his £250million fortune.
Friends say that as the tenor's health deteriorated in the year up to his death from pancreatic cancer last week, his relationship with his second wife Nicoletta Mantovani, 37, fell apart.
He is understood to have become close again to his first wife of 36 years, Adua Veroni, although the couple did not speak for several years following their acrimonious divorce in 2000.
It is against that background that the 71-year-old's will - incorporating several properties in New York, Monte Carlo and his Italian home town of Modena - was changed as recently as a month ago as he lay on his death bed.
Insiders said the changes were in favour of his three daughters from the first marriage - Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana - who had sided with their mother after the split but recently had a rapprochement with their ailing father.
Intriguingly, friends revealed yesterday how Nicoletta recently called them to discover the whereabouts of ownership documents related to his various properties.
Yesterday his dietitian Professor Andrea Strata said: "It's all very sad - he isn't even cold in his tomb yet and now all this is coming out.
"I don't want to say too much but let's just say that with every husband and wife there are always things going on and Nicoletta and Pavarotti were no different from any other couple."
Professor Strata's wife, Franca, said that six weeks ago, with Pavarotti close to death, Nicoletta had called from New York.
"She was in a panic and was looking for some papers for the three New York apartments.
"She asked me to look for them in my safe to see if Luciano had left them here by mistake as he was always staying at my house but they weren't here - who knows where they are?"
She added: "Luciano always spoke highly of Adua. He kept saying you just don't cancel nearly 40 years of marriage like that.
"He said that she had raised the children well and that she had been a good business manager for him and I know that in the last year they had got very close again."
Pavarotti and Nicoletta had a four-year-old daughter, Alice. A friend of the tenor yesterday said: "He and Nicoletta had not been getting on for a while.
2He would say that it was only Alice that was keeping them together and he kept saying, 'Nicoletta doesn't respect me'."
According to another friend, Pavarotti had said: "Nicoletta and I are thinking of separating. I am thinking of going to a lawyer."
Did Pavarotti cut wife out of his £250m will?
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