Pavarotti’s widow sues his friends

Luciano Pavarotti’s widow has sued two friends of the late tenor for $44 million, claiming their comments about her marriage were defamatory.

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

Pavarotti died Sept. 6 of pancreatic cancer at age 71. Soon after, friends close to the tenor told Italian media that he had been unhappy in the marriage, and that Mantovani was fighting his grown daughters from an earlier marriage over his estate.

The two people named in the lawsuit are longtime Pavarotti friends Franca Corfini Strata, wife of the singer’s dietitian, and Lidia La Marca, wife of conductor Leone Magiera, who often performed with Pavarotti.