It’s hard to believe that there would be anyone who didn’t know who Freddie Mercury was.

Just in case you have been missing out on all of the excitement, he was the lead singer for the epic rock band, Queen.

He had a personality that was larger-than-life and it went along with his voice, which many people consider to be one of the best in the industry. Perhaps you are also aware of his lifestyle, but you may not be fully aware of who he was.

Freddie Mercury once discussed the ‘love of his life’ Mary Austin by saying, “The only friend I’ve got is Mary and I don’t want anybody else.” It seemed as if everything that he did was in the spotlight and that includes what is happening, many years after he passed away. Recently, the movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, shed a little bit more attention on his life.

Mary was only 19 when she met Freddie, who is actually named Farrokh Bulsara. It was early in the 1970s and she was working as a PR in a fashion shop in Kensington, West London. That is when she saw the ‘wild looking artistic musician’ walk into the shop. In a 2013 interview, she said: “He was like no one I had met before. He was very confident – something I have never been. We grew together. I liked him and it went on from there.”

After they started dating, they formed a bond and it would remain strong with Freddie for the rest of his life. Eventually, their physical relationship ended but it just continued to grow stronger. She said: “Our love affair ended in tears, but a deep bond grew out of it, and that’s something nobody can take away from us,” Freddie once said. “It’s unreachable. All my lovers ask why they can’t replace her, but it’s simply impossible.”

Eventually, Mary had two children and got married. On the other hand, Freddie died of AIDS and gave her the majority of his fortune. “If things had been different you would have been my wife, and this would have been yours anyway,” he wrote in his will.

After Freddie died, Mary suffered from various illnesses and stress as a result of the inheritance. “I don’t think the remaining members of Queen have ever reconciled themselves to it,” she said in the interview. “I don’t understand it. Because to me, it’s bricks and mortar. I try never to be jealous or envy people.”

“Freddie was very generous to them in the last years of his life and I don’t think they embraced that generosity. I don’t think they appreciated or recognized what Freddie had left them. He left the band a quarter share of the last four albums – which he didn’t need to do. And I never hear from them. After Freddie died, they just wandered off.”

Mary often thinks about Freddie and their life together.

“You hear a specific song and it makes you feel emotional. We lived those 20-odd years together. Under the same roof. Together emotionally.”

As Freddie was dying, they would sometimes watch video footage together of his own performances. “On one occasion he turned to me and said sadly, ‘To think I used to be so handsome.’ I got up and had to leave the room,” she recalled.

“It was too upsetting. We were never allowed to get emotional around him and that was hard. But I knew if I sat there I would have been in tears. When I returned I just sat down as if nothing had happened. But for that moment, he caught me off guard.”

Bohemian Rhapsody has managed to bring Freddie Mercury’s career back into the spotlight. It’s nice to be able to share some happy moments, considering there were also some sad moments included in the mix.