Biographer who revealed Freddie Mercury had a secret daughter reassures fans bombshell is genuine

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

A biographer who made a bombshell revelation of Freddie Mercury 's secret daughter has reassured fans she is telling the truth.
Bestselling author Lesley-Ann Jones has faced questions from some aficionados of the late singer and his band Queen after revealing the child's existence in a new book.
The Mail told on Saturday how her new book called Love, Freddie, reveals the daughter was conceived accidentally during a fling with the wife of a close friend in 1976, a year after the group's most famous song Bohemian Rhapsody was first a hit.
Her existence was known only to Mercury's closest circle, including his parents and sister, the rest of the band members and the love of his life Mary Austin.
The girl, who is now 48 and lives in Europe, where she is a medical professional and also a mother – making Freddie a posthumous grandfather, according to the book.
Jones shared the Mail story outlining the details by posting on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday evening: 'WORLD EXCLUSIVE: now it can be told.'
But there has been an online backlash from some dubious over the new claims about Mercury, whose homosexuality was publicly confirmed following his death from bronchial pneumonia caused by Aids in 1991.
Now the author has responded to sceptics with follow-up messages on the social media site, with one today addressed to 'those "demanding" to see proof of a DNA test, otherwise they won't believe it".
She wrote: 'Please rest assured that the requisite verification was obtained, legal teams have been involved, but that such measures are private & not shared publicly. Thank you.'
Mercury's secret daughter, who has not been named, is said to have been raised in a loving family but always knew that the Queen frontman, a frequent visitor, was her real father
And the singer reportedly gave her before he died 17 volumes of detailed personal journals which she kept a secret and has now handed over to Jones, who had previously written three books about Mercury.
They form the basis for the new book which is due to be published this September.
Flamboyant showman Mercury is known to have had several relationships with women including Mary Austin, whom he met when she was 19 and he 24.
The couple lived together and were engaged for a while, before Freddie came out as gay.
Though they did not have children together, Mary went on to have two sons with another partner, while remaining close to Mercury for the rest of his life.
He also had a relationship in the early 1980s with Austrian actress Barbara Valentin.
Music writer Lesley-Ann Jones has responded on X, formerly Twitter, in response to Queen fans questioning her bombshell revelation about Freddie Mercury's secret daughter
This third liaison with a woman – the mother of his love child – was, however, something Freddie kept a closely guarded secret, it has now been revealed. She is understood to have died years ago.
The new book's opening chapter includes a handwritten letter from Freddie's daughter – identified only as 'B' – in which she says: 'Freddie Mercury was and is my father.
'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.'
Jones, who has also written books on David Bowie, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, has told of first being approached by 'B' three years ago - and initially having concerns about her authenticity.
The author said: 'My instinct was to doubt everything, but I am absolutely sure she is not a fantasist.
'No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three-and-a half years, never demanding anything?
'In my experience of fantasists, and I've met a few, they seek instant gratification, publicity and reward. She has never asked for money. She does not want recognition.
'Both Freddie and her stepfather left her extremely wealthy. She was not provided for through Freddie's will, but by a private, legal arrangement, so no one will find her mentioned there.'
The author is convinced that 'B' is true to her word, adding: 'Freddie Mercury was not who you think he was. He took his greatest secret to the grave.
'He was a hands-on, devoted dad. He described fatherhood as the fulfilment of his most cherished ambition and as the greatest blessing of his life.'
Jones went on to say: 'His only child was conceived accidentally with the wife of one of his closest friends, while his friend was away on an extended business trip. For the Roman Catholic mother, abortion was out of the question.
'It was decided between the three adults that the child would live with her mother and her husband – the child's stepfather. Freddie would have his own rooms at each of their homes.
'The three close friends would raise the child together. Freddie visited and stayed with them frequently. He spoke to his daughter every day when he was away on tour or in the recording studio.
'She knew from toddlerhood which of the two men was her real father. Outside the unusual family, privacy and discretion were maintained to a degree that not even some members of Freddie's personal household had any idea that he had a child.'
Mercury, who started writing the diaries in 1976 when first learning, filled each 192-page book with entries handwritten in ballpoint or rollerball pen.
He describes his life story, beginning with his birth in Zanzibar in 1946, named Farrokh Bulsara, to Parsi-Indian parents.
They also chronicle him attending a British-style boarding school in India from the age of eight to 16 and how the family was forced to flee Zanzibar in the 1964 revolution, before settling in Middlesex.
Freddie's first entry in the original journal was made on Sunday, June 20, 1976, two days after Queen released their single – written by bassist John Deacon – You're My Best Friend from their 1975 album A Night at the Opera.
He wrote his final entry in the last notebook on July 31 1991, as his health failed.
Jones told the Mail: 'At a conservative estimate, Freddie wrote around 555,000 words in total in just under 15 years.'
Shortly before his death aged 45 in Kensington, west London, on November 24 1991, he entrusted the collection of 17 volumes to his then 15-year-old daughter.
Only her nanny, mother, stepfather and Mary Austin knew that he had gifted them to her.
Jones said: 'He instructed her not to read the more graphic journals, eye-wateringly frank about his reckless lifestyle, until she reached her 25th birthday.
'She has stated that if anyone else tries to claim ownership of the diaries, she will burn them.'
Jones and 'B' first met in 2022 in Montreux, Switzerland, a city in which Mercury had lived and recorded albums and where a bronze statue of him stands on a lakeside promenade.
The writer recalled: 'She did not sell herself to me as Freddie's daughter. She did not even identify herself when she first contacted me.
'Having read my book, Love Of My Life [the Mercury biography Jones wrote in 2021], she emailed to thank me for it, but told me there were still many things I should know.
'She had assumed I could simply add new material to the existing book, and publish an updated edition. I explained that publishing doesn't work like that.
'She was not at all keen to begin with on me writing a new book – her concern all along has been privacy, which is of utmost importance to her.
'I spent weeks trying to guess her identity, and eventually worked it out. She admitted to it only when I put it to her. We agreed to work together, and I went to Montreux to meet her.'
'"B" brought the diaries along to the meeting, and also other effects, such as photos, cards, notes and bank statements – to act as proof that she was who she claimed to be.'
In another letter included in the book, 'B' explains her reasons for sharing Freddie's journals after 30 years, saying: 'Those who have been aware of my existence kept his greatest secret out of loyalty to Freddie.
'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.
'His gift to me was our secret. Although those who lived with him and shared his life knew of the existence of the notebooks, none of them knew, after his death, what had become of them.
'His family, fellow band members, closest friends, associates and management have had no idea until now that he gave them to me as a present.'
'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.
'Everyone else . . . they knew only what Freddie wanted them to know. Which wasn't much. Freddie was an intensely private man. He gave so few interviews that he was famous for it.
'I had read everything that Lesley-Ann Jones had ever written about my father when I wrote to her towards the end of 2021, with the intention of offering her the responsibility of sharing his true story.
'I had been meaning to contact her for years, having read so much of her work: not only about Freddie, but also about other artists.
'I was struck by her obvious pursuit of the truth, and by how closely she came to capturing 'the real Freddie'.
'Her book portrayed him more accurately than anything I had ever read. So much of what has been written and committed to film about him by so-called friends, lovers, employees and colleagues has been at best a gross distortion of the truth, at worst an exercise in exploitation.
'I revealed to her who my father was. I told her the truth about his childhood, his life, and everything that built the infant, the boy, the teenager, the young man, the grown man, the dad he was to me, the stage persona and the Mercury mask that he created.
'I explained to her how he compartmentalised his life, and of course talked at length about our precious time together.
'The life I live with my husband and our family in another country is intensely private. We want things to stay that way.
'We cherish our peaceful and anonymous life, and we want nothing to disturb it. Nobody needs to know who I am.
'I will have nothing more to say beyond what I have revealed in this book. There will be no further interviews other than those that I have given to Lesley-Ann.
'I owe it to my father to cherish privacy as one of the most precious privileges in life.
'As he himself said, it was the thing he regretted giving away so readily. The one thing he wished that he could get back.'
Love, Freddie by Lesley-Ann Jones is available to pre-order here.