The deal also includes name and likeness rights, potentially opening the door to musicals, commercial and film placements, merchandising and other money-making opportunities.
The Sun has followed up with a report saying that Mary Austin, former fiancée of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, is set to bank £187.5 million thanks to the record-breaking deal with Sony Music. Austin received half of the Brit rocker’s estate when he died in 1991 then another 25 per cent when his parents died.
LOVE OF MY LIFE How Freddie Mercury’s ‘wife’ landed £187.5m without lifting finger – & has astonishing wealth thanks to Queen legend.
She already got half of the Brit rocker’s estate when he died in 1991 then another 25 per cent when his parents died.
But Londoner Mary also gets 18.75 per cent of revenues from Queen Productions, which controls the band’s catalogue and also pays out to surviving members Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Brian May.
Mary these days has very little contact with them although she and they also serve as trustees of the Mercury Phoenix Trust charity set up in the singer’s honour.
But her latest windfall is now likely to shoot Mary into the Top 100 of Britain’s richest women.
In a rare interview, Mary, now 73, recalled: “He said, ‘I think I am bisexual’.
“I told him: ‘I think you’re gay.’ And nothing else was said. We just hugged.”
Indeed, their bond held fast — with Freddie swearing his undying love, pleading with Mary to remain his closest confidante, and rewarding her by installing her in a flat close to his West London home.
Remarkably, Freddie, who had countless male lovers, said: “All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s 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.
