While family continues to search for Stephen Gately’s will, friends close to the star have begun to fear that the singer never wrote one in the first place.

Sources close to the Irish boy band star have said that it is very likely the 33-year-old, who died suddenly from acute pulmonary oedema at his holiday home in Majorca on October 10, did not settle his affairs before his death.

Gately’s husband Andrew Cowles has been told the will is safe in the hands of a London-based law firm, but he says he doesn’t know which firm or lawyer has the copy of the last wishes.

No one has yet come forward with the document.

Now a friend of Gately and Cowles’ tells the Irish Independent that “there’s a very real possibility” Gately never made a will for his $12 million estate.

"When you consider how high-profile the funeral was, covered by 24-hour rolling news channels, watched by millions across Ireland and the U.K., one would think that if a law firm did hold the will and had read reports that Stephen's family are desperately searching for it, they would have come forward by now," he said.

"Realistically someone would have picked up the phone and contacted the family.”

The source then added: "If there is no will, which is looking more and more likely as the days go by, then it makes everything very complicated legally.”

Friends of the Gately family say they are only concerned with finding the will to discover if Stephen had any last wishes.

"They are not even thinking about the financial side. All they want to know is if Stephen had made any last wishes that they have to see through now,” the source said.