Pavarotti heirs reach agreement over will

The unseemly squabble over Luciano Pavarotti's will has finally been resolved - sort of. When the great Italian tenor died last September he left half of his £250m estate to his 38-year-old second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani (pictured together with their daughter Alice), and divided the rest between his three daughters by his first marriage, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana, who complained they had been "short-changed". Nicoletta – the former PA for whom Pavarotti left his first wife, Adua, after 35 years of marriage - has now reached an agreement with the three girls and the estate will be divided "equally in a manner compatible with legal parameters".

However, there's also the matter of a second will, concerning the singer's £12m worth of American assets which include an apartment in New York and an extensive art collection including works by Henri Matisse. The "American will" is the subject of an ongoing judicial inquiry, concerned that Pavarotti was coerced into writing the will "while not in full possession of his faculties". A decision is expected later this summer.

This aside, Anna Maria Bernini, Pavarotti's lawyer, insists that peace has broken out in the family. She said: "Nicoletta Mantovani and Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana are today linked in true friendship. The maestro did not want any wars or battles and the accord his heirs have reached fully respects the philosophy of this great man."