Pavarotti's wife and daughters 'amazed' by opera star's shocking £12m debts

Lawyers for the opera star's second wife Nicoletta Mantovani and for his three daughters by his first marriage were said to amazed at the amount he owed and are now looking into his bank accounts.

It is the latest twist in the drama of the heavyweight singer's legacy. When he died last month aged 71 it was said that he had a fortune of more than £200million.

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But bank statements, reported in the respected Italian daily La Repubblica, are said to show that Pavarotti had a £7million overdraft at the Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank in Bologna.

On top of that, he owed more than £5million in mortgage payments.

And although he owned properties in New York, Monte Carlo and in his native Modena they were still being paid for.

Nevertheless, according to La Repubblica, Pavarotti still had "liquid" capital of £14million held in stocks, shares and in cash at other banks.

In his career the tenor sold more than 100million records and even as late as 1996 he was still one of the world's highest-paid performers.

At that time, according to wealth magazine Forbes, he was earning more than £14million a year.

Last night notary official Giorgio Cariani said: "We are just at the beginning of the inventory.

"The paperwork we have gone through is only a small part and it will take us several weeks yet to complete the work."

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Mr Cariani refused to confirm or deny the size of Pavarotti's debts, saying only that it was a "private, personal family matter".

Following the singer's death from cancer there was speculation of a rift between his wife and his three daughters from his first marriage over his will.

But now it appears the women will get far less than initially thought - £5million for Miss Mantovani and £1.25million for the daughters, with the same going to Alice, his four-year-old daughter from his second marriage.

Giorgio Bernini, Miss Mantovani's lawyer, said: "The fact that the maestro had debts is no secret to anyone.

"In the final years of his life he cut back on his performances and he also had very expensive hospital bills to pay."

Besides his Italian will he also left his American assets - including an apartment in New York and an Henri Matisse painting - to Miss Mantovani, 37, and Alice, to the exclusion of his older daughters.

Fabrizo Corsini, the lawyer representing Pavarotti's daughters, said he would be examining bank statements and documents.

He said: "We never imagined Pavarotti would owe so much... We have received the paperwork and we are going through it with a fine toothcomb to see what exactly he had or didn't have."