Freddie Mercury met Mary Austin when he was 24, and she was only 19. At the time, none of them could have imagined what the future would bring them, let alone that their love story would turn into one of the most famous in the world. The same story was shown in the Oscar-winning hit film “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
“All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible. The only friend I’ve got is Mary, and I don’t want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage”, the legendary musician said on one occasion.
When Freddie died of AIDS in 1991, Austin was by his side as she had been for much of his life. He left her half of his fortune, estimated at $ 75 million, as well as the 28-room house in London in which she still lives today. Mary today lives a quiet life away from the spotlight under which she was at the time of his greatest popularity.
They immediately fell in love
Mercury and Austin met in 1969, a year before he formed a band with Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon that would later be called Queen. Mercury was born as Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946 and moved to London with his family in the 1960s.
Mary was working at the Biba clothing store at the time. They quickly fell in love and started living together, even though Mary was much more withdrawn than Freddie. “He was like no one I had ever met before. He was very confident, and I have never been confident. We grew together. I liked him – and it went on from there”, Austin said in an interview in 2000.
When the band Queen released their debut album in 1973, the couple moved into a larger apartment, and Freddie proposed to her. “When I was 23, he gave me a big box on Christmas Day. Inside was another box, then another, and so it went on. It was like one of his playful games. Eventually, I found a lovely jade ring inside the last small box,” Mary told Daily Mail many years later.
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It was not clear to her what was going on, so she asked the musician on which finger to put that ring, and he asked if she would marry him. She said yes immediately.
In the years that followed, the Queen’s popularity skyrocketed, and Freddie dedicated numerous songs to his wife, the most famous of which was “Love of my life.” The band, but also Freddie himself, had more and more fans day by day, and the singer was more and more indulging in a debauched life.
After the breakup they remained best friends
They didn’t do so well at home anymore. After six years of relationship, they no longer talked about marriage, and Mary concluded that something was wrong. Mercury claimed all along that it was her imagination and that everything was fine. At first, she thought she was having an affair with another woman, but in 1976 he decided to confess everything to her. “I’ll never forget that moment,” Mary said. He told her he was bise*ual, but she thought he was gay.
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Soon after, she moved into an apartment near his house, and then their physical relationship ended, but they were connected until the end. She went on tour with the Queen, and they remained best friends.
Mary later met painter Piers Cameron with whom she has two sons, and Freddie is her eldest son’s godfather. She never married him, and her later marriage to entrepreneur Nick Holford ended in divorce after five years. Austin was never out of Freddie’s life.
“He kept her close by when he became ill”, said the Queen’s biographer on one occasion. She supported him in his treatment decision, and until just a few days before his death, his illness was a mystery. She promised him at the outset that no one would find out he had AIDS until he wanted to.
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“When he died, I felt we’d had a marriage. We’d done it for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. You could never have let go of Freddie unless he died – and even then it was difficult”, she told OK!.
Kim Marks 
Nina Smith