Criminal probe launched into Pavarotti's second will

LONDON: A criminal investigation has been launched into allegations that Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti was coerced into leaving his entire 12-million-pounds American estate to his second wife.

Just weeks before his death last month, the opera singer had signed his second will in favour of his second wife Nicolette Mantovani.

"What is being suggested is very serious. I will be looking to see if Pavarotti was coerced, that he had no idea he was signing because of his state of mind," the media quoted Italian prosecutor Massimo Di Patria as saying.

However Mantovani's lawyer has rubbished the claims saying, "I find this accusation deeply offensive."

The probe came days after Pavarotti's three adult daughters had filed a suit to fight his second wife for a share of the 12-million-pound American estate, including an apartment in New York, bequeathed in his second will.

However, the bulk of Pavarotti's 250-million-pounds fortune was bequeathed in his first will which was released shortly after his death.

Half of the fortune went to Mantovani while the other half was split equally between his four children, four-year-old Alice from his second wife and his three adult daughters from his first marriage to Adua Veroni, Lorenza (44), Cristina (42), and Giuliana (39).

The remaining quarter of Pavarotti's estate would be 'considered to be available for the executor of the will to do whatever he saw fit with', his lawyer had said, suggesting the tenor's first wife Adua Veroni could get that and urged the public to stop speculating about its contents.