THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — The tearful widow of late boxer Arturo Gatti said she was tired of fighting her in-laws Wednesday as the sides continued to negotiate a possible settlement over his will.
A sobbing Amanda Rodrigues said it was painful to have to relive their tumultuous relationship, day after day.
The sides have been battling each other in an emotional court case over his $3.4 million fortune. As she returned to the witness stand on the 12th day of the trial, Rodrigues said she’s had enough.
"I’m so tired of fighting," a crying Rodrigues told Justice Claudine Roy at the end of the day.
"I’m tired of leaving (my son) Junior every single day at home, crying, coming here. I don’t want it to be like this."
The sides appeared less hostile to each other Wednesday than they had earlier in the trial. Both Rodrigues and the boxer’s brother, Fabrizio Gatti, were more subdued on the witness stand.
The trial had been suspended for a day this week while the sides attempted to reach an agreement.
Carmine Mercadante, a lawyer for the Gatti family, said there could not be a deal until he and his clients finished discussing some issues.
In the absence of a deal, testimony resumed Wednesday with Rodrigues being questioned by her own lawyer.
Neither lawyer has commented publicly on the content of closed-door discussions. The fact that the sides expressed willingness to negotiate came as a sudden reversal this week, considering their bitter struggle.
Rodrigues and the Gatti clan have been at odds since Gatti’s death at a Brazilian resort in 2009.
"My marriage wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t healthy all the time," she testified Wednesday.
"But they can’t take away the love I had for him (Arturo) or the love he had for me."
The boxer’s family does not accept the conclusion of Brazilian authorities that he committed suicide. And they reject the legitimacy of a will, signed just weeks before his death, that left everything to Rodrigues.
They say a 2007 will that leaves his money to his mother and daughter is the legitimate document but thus far they haven’t found a signed copy.
The Gatti family has said it wants the fortune to be split equally between Gatti’s son with Rodrigues and his daughter from a previous relationship.
The Gattis say they don’t want any of the money for themselves.
Rodrigues told the court that she regrets some of the things she did before Gatti died. That includes, she said, kicking him out of their bedroom following a fight on that fateful night.
"It’s hard for me because at the end, I know that I said things I shouldn’t have said, I did things I shouldn’t have done," Rodrigues told the judge.
"I love him so much my honour."
.Rodrigues seemed more pleased when the court viewed dozens of photographs depicting the couple on vacation with their baby boy.
She said their marriage and the birth of their son were the happiest days of her life.
Negotiations began after three-year-old Arturo Jr., the son of Rodrigues and Gatti, was brought for a visit to his Montreal relatives over the weekend for the first time since 2009.
The meeting was said to have been highly emotional and it may have marked a turning point in the dispute.
Rodrigues says she allowed the visit not for the sake of her son or her mother-in-law, but for her late husband.
"I was thinking about my husband — because he would never want his baby boy to be away from them," Rodrigues said.
"In the same way Junior brings me so much happiness, I know he can do the same for my mother-in-law."
A resolution to the Rodrigues-Gatti case would not completely end the legal saga over the late boxer’s fortune.
There are outstanding legal cases in New Jersey and Florida as well as taxes that have not been paid.
A wrongful-death suit filed in New Jersey by the mother of Arturo Gatti’s oldest child, Sofia, has effectively frozen all of the assets.
The estate also owes back taxes and faces legal action from other parties.
The judge presiding over the Montreal case has noted that there may be little left once all the legal bills have been paid in urging both sides to consider settling.