Freddie Mercury died at his West Kensington home, One Garden Lodge, 28 years ago and Mary Austin was one of the first people informed. The Queen frontman’s friend Dave Clark, of The Dave Clark 5, was at his bedside when he died of complications due to AIDS. After Mercury passed away, Clark said he went downstairs to tell the Bohemian Rhapsody singer’s long-time PA Peter Freestone and his personal chef and friend Joe Fanelli.
Austin, who lived nearby, then came over to the house and Clark called Mercury’s parents to break the news to them.
Austin later revealed how the late star, whose body was cremated, had been terrified his final resting place would be disturbed by fans.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, she said: “He didn’t want anyone trying to dig him up as has happened to some famous people. Fans can be deeply obsessive.
“He wanted it to remain a secret and it will remain so.”
READ MORE: FREDDIE MERCURY: WHAT HIS MOTHER THOUGHT OF MARY AUSTIN
Recalling her final journey with Mercury, when she took his ashes to where he wanted to rest, Austin said she had kept the urn in his bedroom at One Garden Lodge, which he left to her in his will, for two years.
Her last trip with her friend and former lover was conducted in secret as she wanted to keep the location of Mercury’s ashes totally private, in line with his wishes.
“One morning, I just sneaked out of the house with the urn,” she said. “It had to be like a normal day so the staff wouldn’t suspect anything — because staff gossip. They just cannot resist it.
“But nobody will ever know where he is buried because that was his wish.”
Referring to her son as “my boy”, Bulsara said the lasting affection from Queen fans “reassured” her how much people loved him, adding: “None of them love him as much as his mother.”
Opening up on Mercury’s relationship with Austin, whom the rockstar called “the love of his life”, she said: “She was lovely and used to come to us for meals.
“I used to wish they had got married and had a normal life with children. But even when they broke up, I knew she still loved my boy and they stayed friends right to the end.
“I haven’t seen her since he died,” Bulsara added.
In quotes from Freddie Mercury: A Life In His Own Words, a collection of the singer’s major interviews and statements, he spoke about his relationship with Austin, saying: “There have only been two individuals who have given back as much love to me as I gave to them: Mary, with whom I had a long affair, and our cat, Jerry.”
He vowed to leave “everything” to Austin if he died first, adding: “I might have all the problems in the world, but I have Mary and that gets me though.
“I still see her every day and I am fond of her now as I have ever been.
“I’ll love her until I draw my last breath. We’ll probably grow old together,” Mercury said.