{"id":336104,"date":"2025-08-11T15:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336104\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T15:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:58:15","slug":"freddie-mercurys-closest-friend-throws-doubt-on-secret-child-claims-as-woman-speaks-out-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/336104\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Mercury\u2019s closest friend throws doubt on \u2018secret child\u2019 claims as woman speaks out for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freddie Mercury<\/a>\u2019s former girlfriend and closest friend, Mary Austin, has shared her scepticism over a woman claiming to be the singer\u2019s secret daughter,<\/a> who has spoken publicly for the first time ahead of the release of a book about her story.<\/p>\n

Co-written with author Lesley-Ann Jones, Love, Freddie: Freddie Mercury\u2019s Secret Life and Love claims that B was conceived by accident while the late Queen frontman was having an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976.<\/p>\n

Only his inner circle, including his bandmates<\/a> and Austin, were said to know of the child\u2019s existence for almost five decades.<\/p>\n

The book, which is scheduled for release in September, draws on what B says are 17 handwritten diaries Mercury gave her shortly before his death in 1991.<\/p>\n

B, now 48, claims that she and Mercury had a \u201cvery close and loving\u201d relationship: \u201cHe treated me like a treasured possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement published by the Daily Mail,<\/a> she said: \u201cI didn’t want to share my dad with the whole world. After his death, I had to learn to live with the attacks against him, the misrepresentations of him, and with the feeling that my dad now belonged to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried and mourned my dad, while fans all around the world mourned Freddie. When you are 15 years old, it’s not easy. I had to become an adult without him\u2026 For 30 years I had to build my life and family without him\u2026 I needed to have my dad just for me and my family. How could I have spoken before?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/p>\n

Queen (Freddie Mercury right) in 1977 (Ian Tyas\/Keystone\/Getty)<\/p>\n

B\u2019s claims have been met with scepticism from some of Mercury\u2019s closest friends, including Austin \u2013 who inherited much of the singer\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Sunday Times<\/a> this weekend, Austin said at no point did Mercury tell her he had fathered a daughter, nor did she see him write a diary. The first entry said to have been written was on 20 June 1976, while she was still living with the \u201cBohemian Rhapsody<\/a>\u201d star.<\/p>\n

Austin met Mercury when she was 19 and he was 23, a year before Queen were formed. They lived together in London for years before, in late 1976, the singer told her about his sexuality. They remained close, with Mercury saying in 1985: \u201cAll my lovers ask me why they couldn\u2019t replace Mary, but it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only friend I\u2019ve got is Mary, and I don\u2019t want anybody else. We believe in each other, that\u2019s enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFreddie 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,\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cThe truth is that I am simply not the guardian of such a secret. I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Mercury had had a daughter, she added, \u201cit would have brought tremendous joy to Freddie, and everybody who cared about him \u2013 including Freddie\u2019s parents. I believe that [Bomi and Jer Bulsara] would have embraced her with all the love in their hearts. But I do not remember Freddie ever speaking about creating a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mercury<\/p>\n

Mercury with Austin at an after-party for Queen’s Wembley concerts, 12 July 1986 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Last month, Anita Dobson shared the reaction of her husband, Mercury\u2019s Queen bandmate Brian May<\/a>, after B\u2019s claims were made public.<\/p>\n

She told The Mirror<\/a>: \u201cI went \u2018What?\u2019 I thought, \u2018No,\u2019 And I said to Brian, \u2018Do you know about this?\u2019 And he said: \u2018Do you believe this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cThere must be lots of people who have children that we don\u2019t know about. It\u2019s just because it\u2019s him. Because he\u2019s iconic. And the type of animal that he was, it seems inconceivable that he would have a child with someone we don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobson suggested it might be \u201cfake news\u201d, stating: \u201cIf he does have one, where is she \u2013 step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

B told the Mail that she was \u201cdevastated\u201d by Austin\u2019s response: \u201cFor 34 years, the truth of Freddie’s life has been distorted, twisted and rewritten, but she said nothing \u2013 with the exception of her comment about the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which she called \u2018artistic licence\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, she has not yet read the book, yet she apparently makes this statement. I don\u2019t understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The woman known only as \u2018B\u2019 hit out at Freddie Mercury\u2019s closest friend, Mary Austin, for saying \u2018nothing\u2019 while \u2018the truth of his life\u2019 was be \u2018distorted, twisted and rewritten\u2019 (PA)<\/p>\n

Jones has claimed that Mercury provided for her through a private legal arrangement, which she said explained why there would be no mention of B in Mercury\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

Asked on social media whether a DNA test had been arranged to prove that B was Mercury\u2019s daughter, she responded: \u201cPlease rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but that such measures are private and not shared publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin said that the narrative surrounding the book\u2019s origin had been \u201cbaffling\u201d, stating that there was no provision in Mercury\u2019s will for \u201cany kind of secret trust\u201d, while nothing of that nature had ever gone through his estate accounts, to her knowledge.<\/p>\n

Austin, who is famously private and rarely gives interviews, said she felt compelled to speak out in order to \u201cprevent my silence being interpreted as confirmation … speaking now is not a decision I have taken lightly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her remarks land amid ongoing controversy surrounding the now-disputed nature memoir, The Salt Path<\/a>, whose author, Raynor Winn, has been accused <\/a>of fabricating large parts of the book. Winn has called the claims against her book \u201chighly misleading\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Raynor<\/p>\n

Raynor Winn\u2019s memoir has been the subject of controversy after allegations of factual inaccuracy were made against it (Getty)<\/p>\n

Austin told The Sunday Times that she hoped that Whitefox, the publishers of B\u2019s book, had \u201crigorously investigated the veracity of the claims and satisfied itself this book aligns with its, and the industry\u2019s, values and ethics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Whitefox said in a statement to The Sunday Times: \u201cWhitefox takes issues of accuracy, legality and ethics seriously, and we work to ensure that any project we are involved with has been subject to appropriate editorial and legal scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddie Mercury\u2019s former girlfriend and closest friend, Mary Austin, has shared her scepticism over a woman claiming to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[16314,26489,120261,77,13255,58942,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-336104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-child","9":"tag-claims","10":"tag-closest-friend","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-freddie-mercury","13":"tag-lesley-ann-jones","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115010962411154400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}