Mary Austin, who is the former partner of Freddie Mercury, the iconic lead singer of the British rock band Queen, has refuted claims about Mercury having a secret child.
Austin, now 74, was described by Mercury as ‘the love of his life’. She has dismissed the notion of Mercury having a hidden child as ‘implausible’.
This comes in response to a forthcoming book titled: Love, Freddie. The book, which appears to rely on alleged diary entries from Mercury and the supposed secret child, claims that Mercury fathered a daughter from an affair with a friend’s wife. Mary has expressed her ‘total disbelief’ regarding these claims.
The book also suggests that this was a closely held secret known only to Mercury’s inner circle, which supposedly included Mary.
Mary, who was Mercury’s girlfriend and companion from the time they met in 1969 until his passing in 1991, remarked: “I was named as a party to a story that spread across the world. And so, as I thought about it more, my disbelief turned into bewilderment as to how this story, referencing me, had hatched without a single person making contact with me first.”
She continued to emphasize: “Despite it being claimed that I knew about the existence of a secret child and kept it secret, not one person has attempted to contact me for a right of reply.”
Freddie Mercury passed away from bronchial pneumonia as a result of Aids. The book alleges that Mercury had a romantic liaison with a friend’s wife, leading to the birth of a child referred to as ‘B’. It claims to feature 17 volumes of diaries that Freddie supposedly wrote upon learning he was going to be a father and later gave to B. The book also claims to include entries from ‘B’, now 48, who is described as a medical professional in Europe, claiming a close relationship with Freddie “from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life”.
An entry from ‘B’ claims that Freddie: “Entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me,” and states: “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.”
However, Mary disputes this, stating: “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.
“I have no knowledge of the diaries or them being ‘entrusted’ to a child. I was with him most days in the months before his death. If Freddie had indeed had a child without me knowing anything about it, that would be astonishing to me.”