The woman who claimed to be the “secret daughter” of Queen legend Freddie Mercury has died at the age of 48.
Reports that the late frontman may have had a daughter first came to light last May, when a new biography called Love, Freddie was published. It explores the life of the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ singer and alleged that the child was conceived accidentally during an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976.
The woman was only referred to as “B” throughout the book, and she claimed that Mercury kept a close relationship with her until his death in 1991. The biography – written by journalist Lesley-Ann Jones – also claimed that he would visit her regularly and give her 17 volumes of detailed personal journals.
Today (Thursday January 15), it has been confirmed that “B” has died, aged 48.
The news was shared by her husband, Thomas, who shared a statement with the Daily Mail. In it, he said that she died “peacefully after a long battle with chordoma, a rare spinal cancer” and has left behind “two sons aged nine and seven”.
Thomas also said that “B” was “now with her beloved and loving father in the world of thoughts”, and had her ashes scattered over the Alps.
In the pages of Love, Freddie: Freddie Mercury’s Secret Life and Love, author Lesley-Ann Jones claims the iconic Queen frontman was a dad to a daughter, according to a report from The Daily Mail.
The book, titled Love, Freddie, which explores the life of the late Queen frontman, alleges that the child was conceived accidentally during an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976.
It goes on to claim that Mercury kept a close relationship with the child until his death in 1991, visiting her regularly and giving her 17 volumes of detailed personal journals, which she kept a secret.
The book includes B’s reasoning for sharing the journals after 30 years, with her writing: “After more than three decades of lies, speculation and distortion, it is time to let Freddie speak.
“Freddie Mercury was and is my father,” B wrote in the book. “We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life. He adored me and was devoted to me. The circumstances of my birth may seem, by most people’s standards, unusual and even outrageous. That should come as no surprise. It never detracted from his commitment to love and look after me. He cherished me like a treasured possession.”
B had spoken out for the first time, telling 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 said.
“Those who have been aware of my existence kept his greatest secret out of loyalty to Freddie,” she continues. “That I choose to reveal myself in my own midlife is my decision and mine alone. I have not, at any point, been coerced into doing this.
“He entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me, his only child and his next of kin, the written record of his private thoughts, memories and feelings about everything he had experienced.”
Love, Freddie also provides the woman's personal account of the “very close and loving" father-daughter relationship she had with Mercury before his death at age 45 in 1991, per The Daily Mail.
Jones claims in Love, Freddie, per The Daily Mail, that the existence of Mercury's daughter was only known by those in the singer’s inner circle: his parents, sister, Queen bandmates and Mary Austin — his ex-fiancée and close friend.
The unnamed daughter states in the book that she always knew the performer was her real father. She also writes that Mercury visited her and her mother often throughout her childhood, The Daily Mail reported.
“It was decided between the three adults that the child would live with her mother and her husband – the child's stepfather," Jones writes in the book, per the outlet, adding that Mercury even had "his own rooms at each of their homes.”
