Freddie Mercury<\/a> – even though she inherited his house and half his fortune.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury in 1986<\/p>\n
The 75-year-old former shop assistant dated the late Queen frontman for six years, and they remained very close friends until he died in 1991, but she never discussed their bond with her boys Richard and James – who she has with ex-husband Piers Cameron and they only became aware of how the family came to own their home a few years ago, when she began arranging an auction of some of the Bohemian Rhapsody singer’s possessions.<\/p>\n
She told The Guardian newspaper: \u201cThe boys had no idea until they were in their late 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew nothing about Queen, because I never told them. I never told them about Freddie. Ask Jamie when you see him. Ask him when he first realised.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJamie thought we\u2019d inherited the house from his great-grandfather. He made it up. When he was young, he brought his friend to the house. In my head I can see them close to the piano, mid-conversation, photographs are on the piano, and Jamie is telling his friend, \u2018Yes, the house used to belong to my great-grandfather.\u2019 And I thought, wherever did you get that from?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere were [photos of Freddie in the house], on the piano, but Jamie never asked. Nobody asked. They were just there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAsked how the conversation went when she told them about her inheritance and Freddie being the love of her life, she said: \u201cIt never did. I never talk to them about money. Money goes into the bank account if you need to pay for anything…<\/p>\n
\n“They were young boys growing into teenagers and young men. I\u2019ve read so many psychology books about young boys and how many hormonal changes they go through and how complex they are, and I thought, you have to enjoy your life. Your childhood is key to who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMary admitted she has asked her sons very little about Queen over the years and was reluctant to broach the topic because she didn’t want to upset herself.<\/p>\n
\nAsked if Jamie listened to Queen, she said: “I haven\u2019t even asked him that question. I just didn\u2019t want him to grow up being anybody else other than himself. I\u2019d lived around Freddie, and how d\u2019you ever describe anyone like Freddie? It takes a lifetime. And it took my lifetime, even though he\u2019s been dead for so much of it.<\/p>\n
\n“Talking about [Freddie] used to make me cry. Why would I do that to make myself upset?\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBut Jamie insisted he was more aware of Freddie’s bond with his mother than she realised and avoided the subject so as not to cause Mary “pain”.<\/p>\n
\nHe said: \u201cSo, when I was younger, there was a tendency for parents to speak about my mother\u2019s association with Freddie, and I didn\u2019t really want that association. I just wanted to be seen for me. So I would tell people I was at school with that it was actually inherited by my grandfather.<\/p>\n
\n“Obviously everyone knows who Freddie Mercury is. It\u2019s true that my mother decided not to talk about Freddie, but there were lots of Freddie\u2019s CDs in the house. One of the first bands I listened to was Queen because the house was filled with them.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI knew my mother had a relationship with Freddie. We never discussed it as a family. It was very difficult even when I was an adult for Mum to talk about it. There was a great deal of emotion. The loss was still there. It was obvious to me and my brother how painful it was for my mother to speak about it. When you see that kind of discomfort and pain, it\u2019s not something you want to talk about. So we learned to be respectful of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDiscussing Freddie more openly has “hugely” changed Mary’s relationship with her sons.<\/p>\n
\nJamie said: “It was a huge moment for the whole family. And it took years from the first time we talked about it. That was the opening of the door, as it were…<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMum was grieving. She gave birth to me two months after Freddie passed, she moved into Garden Lodge when I was six months old and my brother was just over two. She didn\u2019t have a partner at the time. And she was left alone with all this and no support structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAddressing Mary directly, he added: \u201cNow I have such an incredible appreciation of everything you went through.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s strange, because I lived 30 years of it in a very different way from you. But I have such a starkly different appreciation of how difficult everything was for you and why you made the decisions you did to protect us the best you could. Now you\u2019re in your 70s and you feel you have the support structure to close the door on that chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n
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