The wife of Luciano Pavarotti slept on a campbed in his New York hospital room while he was being treated for pancreatic cancer and as she jetted between him and their daughter in Italy.

Terri Robson, who worked for Pavarotti for 20 years, offered a glimpse into the last years Pavarotti spent with his family, telling how the tenor wanted to keep things as normal as possible for his young daughter in Italy while he was being treated.

Ms Robson, who was Pavarotti’s manager for the last six years, said that in the last couple of years of his life Pavarotti only argued with his second wife, Nicoletta, when she tried to make him exercise more and eat less.

She said that although Pavarotti and Nicoletta were only married in 2003 they had "been together for over thirteen years.”

“Nicoletta’s profound sadness over the past week has been heartbreaking. She loved Luciano and made him very happy." She said: "The only subjects I witnessed them arguing seriously over in the year leading up to his diagnosis last summer were his fitness and diet. Simply put: she always tried to make him eat less and exercise more and this made him angry."

Ms Robson said that at the end of 2005, "when their marriage was supposedly in trouble", Nicoletta had organised a surprise 70th birthday Masked Ball celebration for Pavarotti in a palazzo near Modena "with hundreds of friends, family and colleagues from all over the world, a huge production of fireworks, dancers, acrobats, singers and opera performances by his students".

Shortly afterwards, Ms Robson said, she had accompanied the couple and their young daughter Alice to Australia on Pavarotti's farewell tour, where Nicoletta became "determined to get Luciano back into shape". Ms Robson said she introduced the Pavarottis to John Annear, an Australian former football star who had recently opened a sports clinic in Perth. He went back with them to Italy "to continue working with Luciano through January on the build up to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Turin, which Nicoletta was helping to produce".

At Turin Pavarotti had sung "fantastically well" but shortly afterwards suffered "terrible back pain" on holiday in Barbados while preparing for a Three Tenors concert in Mexico. "We sent Luciano via New York so that he could undergo tests and a scan. I was in London and received a call from a very worried Nicoletta saying he had been diagnosed with a serious spinal condition and was to be operated on immediately."

Ms Robson said Nicoletta was “wracked with guilt that she had been pressurising him so much on holiday to keep up his exercise regime”.

He returned to New York "to recuperate before leaving for a farewell performance in England" but "a couple of days before he was due to leave for London Nicoletta called me to say he was unwell again. He was admitted to hospital for further tests, which led to the final diagnosis of pancreatic cancer."

She said that "throughout this whole period and the weeks that followed, Nicoletta was constantly travelling back and forth between Luciano in New York and Alice in Italy".

This was not neglect but due to Pavarotti's own wish for Alice "to remain in her routine in Italy (she had recently started school) as he did not want her to see him in hospital or go through surgery."

She added: "When he was in hospital, Nicoletta slept on a camp bed in his room beside him. The final cancer diagnosis was obviously a terrific blow after everything he had been through in 2006. But, he received excellent treatment and remained very optimistic."

Ms Robson said reports the opera singer had sought a separation from Nicolette as he lay dying were “malicious rumours in obscenely bad taste”.

She also took the time to dispel rumours that the singer was only reconciled with his three daughters - Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana- by his first wife during his final days.

“It is utterly untrue that his daughters only recently made peace with their father, as has been reported. The daughters were frequent visitors to Luciano and Nicoletta’s family homes in Modena, Pesaro and New York.”

“Pavarotti was only buried two days ago" she added. "Old friends" were “doing Luciano a great disservice by spreading malicious gossip about the wife he loved. Real, loyal friends of Luciano would never do this. He was loyal to them and they were loyal to him. Luciano rarely said a bad word against anybody, including his ex-wife”.

Pavarotti's fortune includes his estate at outside Modena, a villa in Pesaro, three apartments in New York, an apartment in Monte Carlo and a villa in Barbados. La Repubblica today reported that before dying he had signed over the royalties from his albums to Nicoletta.

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