SHE is the woman who won Freddie Mercury’s heart and walked away with his fortune – and now she is about to land another huge payout.
Mary Austin, former fiancée of Queen frontman Freddie, is set to bank £187.5million thanks to a record-breaking deal being brokered by the band to sell off their back catalogue to Sony for £1billion.
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She already got half of the Brit rocker’s estate when he died in 1991 then another 25 per cent when his parents died.
But Londoner Mary also gets 18.75 per cent of revenues from Queen Productions, which controls the band’s catalogue and also pays out to surviving members Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Brian May.
Mary these days has very little contact with them although she and they also serve as trustees of the Mercury Phoenix Trust charity set up in the singer’s honour.
But her latest windfall is now likely to shoot Mary into the Top 100 of Britain’s richest women.
She first met Freddie in 1970.
He was an unknown musician in his twenties who had moved to London from his birth country of Zanzibar six years previously, while she was a 19-year-old art student.
They moved in together and in 1973 got engaged.
But Mary has recalled the time, three years later, when Freddie told her he was gay, after they had been together for six years.
In a rare interview, Mary, now 73, recalled: “He said, ‘I think I am bisexual’.
“I told him: ‘I think you’re gay.’ And nothing else was said. We just hugged.”
Art collection
Indeed, their bond held fast — with Freddie swearing his undying love, pleading with Mary to remain his closest confidante, and rewarding her by installing her in a flat close to his West London home.
Remarkably, Freddie, who had countless male lovers, said: “All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s impossible.
“The only friend I’ve got is Mary and I don’t want anybody else.
“To me, she was my common-law wife.
“To me, it was a marriage.
“We believe in each other.
“That’s enough for me.
“I couldn’t fall in love with a man the same way as I have with Mary.”
He dedicated his 1975 song Love Of My Life to Mary but the next year, unable to hide his homosexuality any longer, came out as gay and split with Mary.
From the early Eighties, he was rumoured to have contracted HIV.
But according to his long-time partner, Irish-born hairdresser Jim Hutton who died in 2010, Freddie was only diagnosed with it in 1987.
As Freddie’s health got worse, Mary stepped in as carer at his home in West Kensington.
When Freddie died in 1991, aged 45, he left Mary 50 per cent of his future earnings, 25 per cent to his Indian-born parents, and 25 per cent to his sister.
But Mary’s share rose to 75 per cent after Freddie’s father Bomi died in 2003 and mother Jer in 2016.
Freddie also left Mary his 28-room property — now valued at £30million — as well as an incredible art collection and Louis XV furniture.
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Mary has shunned the limelight and prefers a private life.
But in 2013, in a rare interview, she said inheriting the bulk of Freddie’s fortune had been a burden that had caused “bitter resentment” among the singer’s inner circle, not least his former bandmates.
She said: “I don’t think the remaining members of Queen have ever reconciled themselves to it.
“I don’t understand it.
“I never hear from them.
“After Freddie died, they just wandered off.”
Mary has adult sons Jamie and Richard by her painter ex Piers Cameron.
Both sons are understood to have been privately educated, but also keep a low profile.
‘I had to be brave and sell the lot’
Mary later married businessman Nick Holford but that relationship was short-lived, and she is now not believed to be in a relationship.
She surely takes solace, though, in the enduring popularity of Queen — evidenced in 2018 by the huge box-office success of Freddie biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
The film, starring Rami Malek as Freddie and Lucy Boynton as Mary, was panned by critics but grossed over £700million.
Mary reportedly banked at least £40million in royalties — and that has not stopped her from expanding her fortune even more.
In April last year, she announced she was going to sell off the entire contents of Freddie’s West Kensington home.
She said: “The time has come to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life.
“If I was going to sell, I had to be brave and sell the lot.”
Auctioned at Sotheby’s last September, its estimated £7million value was quickly dwarfed by a sales take of £40million, with some of the money going to charity.
Meanwhile, final details of the back-catalogue deal with Sony are being thrashed out — as the gift of Freddie continues to give.
A spokesman for Queen declined to comment.
Mary’s representatives were also approached for comment.
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