€29m Pavarotti lawsuit

LUCIANO PAVAROTTI’S widow is suing two friends of the late tenor for €29.6 million, claiming their comments about her marriage were defamatory, her lawyer said yesterday.

Nicoletta Mantovani filed the lawsuit last month after warning that speculation about the state of her marriage would not be tolerated, her lawyer said.

Pavarotti died on September 6 of pancreatic cancer aged 71. Soon after, friends close to the tenor said he had been unhappy in the marriage and Ms Mantovani was fighting his grown daughters from an earlier marriage over his estate.

“Since the comments did not cease — and were, in fact, reiterated — Mantovani had no choice but to file the lawsuit,” lawyer Anna Maria Bernini said.

The two people named in the lawsuit are Pavarotti friends Franca Corfini Strata, wife of the singer’s dietician, and Lidia La Marca, wife of conductor Leone Magiera.