Freddie Mercury's ‘secret daughter': I didn't want to share my Dad with the world

Telegraph

a day ago

Freddie Mercury's 'secret daughter' has spoken for the first time about her father, revealing she did not want to share him 'with the whole world'.
The woman, known as B, has told of her struggle following the singer's death as she was just a teenager at the time. She spoke on Friday ahead of the release of a new book, titled Love, Freddie, next month.
In a statement, reported by the Daily Mail, she said: 'I 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.
'I cried and mourned my Dad, while fans all around the world mourned Freddie. When you are 15 years old. it's not easy. I had to become an adult without him, and live all the structuring moments and events without his support.
'For 30 years I had to build my life and family without him and accept that he wouldn't be there to share the happy moments with us. For 30 years, while the rest of the world was reinterpreting Mercury's life, his music and all that he had been, I needed to have my Dad just for me and my family. How could I have spoken before?'
The book, written by author Lesley-Ann Jones, is based on 17 handwritten diaries that Freddie gave B three weeks before he died on November 24, 1991, due to health complications related to Aids.
Queen fans were surprised on discovering that he had a daughter, who was conceived accidentally during a fling with the wife of a close friend in 1976, a year after Bohemian Rhapsody was a hit.
Mercury's former lover and friend Mary Austin, who inherited around half of the singer's estimated £9 million estate following the star's death, is alleged to have said she was unaware of B's existence.
In response, B said: 'I am devastated by Mary Austin's alleged response. For 34 years, the truth of Freddie's life has been distorted, twisted and rewritten, but she said nothing - with the exception of her comment about the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which she called 'artistic licence'.
'Here, she has not yet read the book, yet she apparently makes this statement. I don't understand why.'
Austin and Mercury met when they were 19 and 23, respectively, before getting engaged prior to the singer coming out as gay.
'He cherished me'
In the book's opening chapter, there is a handwritten letter from Freddie's daughter which reads: '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.'
Ann Jones said she was 'surprised' by Austin's response to the revelation, claiming that the book features 'only one voice: that of Freddie's daughter'.
She added: 'The story is hers. The quotes are hers. Her source is the collection of 17 handwritten diaries that Freddie gave her three weeks before he died.'