Earlier this summer, a new Freddie Mercury biography suggested that the Queen frontman had a secret daughter. Plenty of his inner circle were sceptical. Now, the anonymous woman has spoken out for the first time.
Co-written with author Lesley-Anne Jones, Love, Freddie: Freddie Mercury’s Secret Life and Love claimed that his secret child was conceived after he had an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976.
The book is scheduled for release in September, but plenty of his close friends have already refuted the claim, which also stated that Mercury kept a close relationship with the girl until his death in 1991. The woman is now 48 years old and working as a medical professional, but she is kept anonymous in the book. She is referred to as “B” throughout.
While Queen guitarist Brian May said he wanted to remain “neutral” about the news, his wife, Anita Dobson, branded the claim “fake news”. Mary Austin, Mercury’s former girlfriend and close friend, also expressed extreme doubt.
“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 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.”
The anonymous woman, B, told The Daily Mail that she was “devastated” by Austin’s comments. “She has not yet read the book, yet she apparently makes this statement. I don’t understand why,” she commented.
She also shared that she “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.”
Jones was recently asked on social media whether a DNA test had been completed to prove that B was Mercury’s daughter. The journalist responded, “Please rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but such measures are private and not shared publicly.”