The widow of Luciano Pavarotti, Nicoletta Mantovani, is suing two of the late opera star's close friends for alleging that the couple's marriage was close to collapse at the time of the singer's death.
Mantovani has previously criticised the Italian media for speculating about the state of her marriage to Pavarotti, and for reporting that there are tensions between her and the singer's children from his first marriage over his will. Yesterday her lawyers announced they were launched defamation proceedings against two of the people quoted in those stories - Franca Corfini Strata, who is married to the late singer's dietician, and Lidia La Marca, the wife of conductor Leone Magiera - both of whom appeared on a popular Italian TV show called 'Porta A Porta' and claimed that Mantovani had been "isolating" Pavarotti in the months before his death. La Marca said the singer had complained to her that his wife was cutting him off from his friends, and that she was only thinking about money.
Confirming the defamation action, Mantovani's lawyer Anna Maria Bernini said yesterday: "Since the comments did not cease - and were in fact reiterated - Mantovani had no choice but to file the lawsuit. She is doing it to protect her sense of respectability - privately for the sake of her daughter and the memory of the maestro, publicly for her image and any future professional activity".