Report: Pavarotti was $18 million in debt

MODENA, Italy, March 2 (UPI) -- Famed Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti was more than $18 million in debt when he died last year, it was reported Sunday.

The Daily Mail reported that, according to court documents, one of the tenor's bank accounts had been overdrawn by more than $12 million and the singer was nearly $7.5 million behind in mortgage payments.

The figures discovered by attorneys for the singer's second wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, were surprising due to other paperwork showing the singer had more than $9 million in assets.

The British newspaper said Mantavani was entitled to 50 percent of the opera singer's estate under Italian law, along with the former couple's 5-year-old daughter, Alice.

The other half of Pavarotti's estate was supposed to go to his other daughters, Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana, following his death of complications from pancreatic cancer.