Freddie Mercury’s ex-partner and long-time close friend Mary Austin has broken her silence on claims he had a secret child.
The Queen legend died in November 1991, aged 45, having publicly shared that he had AIDS shortly before.
Having once stated that he was bisexual, Mercury was known to have relationships with both men and women throughout his life, one of whom was Austin.
They enjoyed a long-term romance in the early 70s, having met through guitarist Sir Brian May. While they got engaged in 1973, they ultimately split but remained good pals until Mercury’s death, with him once calling her his ‘only friend’.
Mercury, who met Autin when he was 23 and he was 19, said in 1985: ‘All my lovers ask me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s impossible. The only friend I’ve got is Mary, and I don’t want anybody else. We believe in each other; that’s enough for me.’
Fast forward to March 2025, and a woman came forward alleging the Bohemian Rhapsody hitmaker was her father after he had a brief fling with a friend’s wife.
Born in 1976, she speaks out for the first time in her new book, titled Love, Freddie and written by biographer Lesley-Ann Jones, claiming Mercury was ‘devoted’ to her.
Up until now, it’s believed only Mercury’s Queen bandmates, parents, sister, and former partner, Austin, knew about the child’s identity. Now 48, working in medicine and with kids of her own, she is referred to only as B.
However, in her new interview, ex-fiancée Austin has poured cold water on the allegations, insisting she did not know of B’s existence.
Talking to The Times, Austin, who inherited much of Mercury’s estate, said she would be ‘astonished’ if the claims were proven to be true.
‘Freddie had a glorious openness, and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him,’ Austin said.
She also responded to the 17 handwritten diary entries that Mercury allegedly gave to his daughter shortly before his death, which B says she was trusted with as ‘his only child and his next of kin’.
In a letter to Jones for her book, B says: ‘Mary Austin—the wonderful woman who was to all intents and purposes his wife until death parted them—knew absolutely everything about him, including all his undisclosed secrets.’
But Austin herself denies such a thing.
The 74-year-old added: ‘The truth is that I am simply not the guardian of such a secret.
‘I’ve never known of any child, or of any diaries. If Freddie had indeed had a child without me knowing anything about it, that would be astonishing to me.’
Austin says that, if the We Will Rock You star did have a daughter, it would have brought him ‘tremendous joy’, as well as to his parents and ‘everybody who cared about him’.
While she believes that Mercury’s parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, would have ’embraced her with all the love in their hearts’, she ‘does not remember Freddie ever speaking about creating a family.’
Her comments admittedly come as a ‘surprise’ to author Jones, who responded to The Times by claiming she approached Austin for an interview ‘countless times over many years, but she never once responded’.
‘Mary was not party to a secret that Freddie had a child? I do not suggest that she was. Nor do I suggest that she was aware of or was passed any diaries,’ Jones says.
She proceeds to reiterate B’s statement that Austin ‘knew everything about [Mercury]’ but specifies that the rocker’s alleged daughter has not divulged which ‘undisclosed secrets’ Austin may have been privy to.
Austin’s interview, which she felt compelled to give due to the secret child claims gaining traction, follows B taking a paternity test to prove her identity.
Taking to X, hitting out at allegations B is lying, writer Jones said: ‘To those “demanding” to see proof of a DNA test, otherwise they won’t believe it – please rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but that such measures are private & not shared publicly. Thank you’.
She implored critics to ‘wait and see’ if they are doubting the legitimacy of Mercury’s diary entries, after B denied wanting money or fame after coming forward.
‘His true story, told in his own words, is incredible,’ said Jones. ‘I love him all the more for it. You will too.’
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