It’s a very interesting part of their story, that having lived together as a couple and her believing that at one point they would be married and then having to come to terms with the fact that he was sleeping with guys. “He was to all intents and purposes a gay man. There are photographs of them together backstage at concerts into the late seventies by which stage they were no longer a couple,” says biographer Blake. Yet she remained part of the band’s extended circle. The revelation ended their physical relationship and Austin moved to a nearby flat purchased for her by Mercury’s music-publishing company. Although I do remember saying to him at the time, ‘No Freddie, I don’t think you are bisexual. Afterward, he felt good about having finally told me he was bisexual. “Being a bit naive, it had taken me a while to realize the truth. “I’ll never forget that moment,” Austin told the Daily Mail. But in 1976, already an international star, he decided to discuss his evolving sexual feelings with her. Returning home later and later most nights, Austin thought Mercury was having an affair with another woman.
Austin recalls the relationship cooling after that, the same time the band was experiencing incredible success. I think it’s time for me to go,’” she recalled to OK! Mercury insisted nothing was wrong. “I told him, ‘Something is going on and I just feel like a noose around your neck. She decided to discuss the matter with Mercury. Six years into their relationship marriage was no longer being discussed and Austin began to think something was wrong. His wild mane of hair, toothy grin, showy costumes, and camp performances alongside his thrilling, almost four-octave encompassing singing voice had audiences flocking to see the band.Īustin believed Mercury was gay, not bisexualĪt home, things were not fairing as well. As the band’s fame grew so too did Mercury’s. In the following years, Queen’s profile grew with the release of albums “Sheer Heart Attack” (1974) and “A Night at the Opera” (1975), the latter containing the Mercury-penned ballad “Love of My Life,” reportedly written for Austin. He replied the left and asked her to marry him. Not understanding what was going on, Austin asked Mercury on which hand should she place it. Eventually, I found a lovely jade ring inside the last small box,” Austin told the Daily Mail in 2013. Inside was another box, then another and so it went on. “When I was 23 he gave me a big box on Christmas Day. The couple would eventually move to a bigger flat in London’s Holland Road and in 1973, the year Queen’s eponymous debut album was released, Mercury asked her to marry him. READ MORE: The Complicated Nature of Freddie Mercury's Sexuality Mercury's marriage proposal was unexpected I liked him – and it went on from there.” “He was very confident, and I have never been confident. “He was like no one I had ever met before,” Austin told OK! Magazine in 2000. Austin was initially hesitant about the sometimes larger-than-life Mercury, but they were soon a couple living in a cramped flat together as he worked on his music career. It was while working at the fashionable London clothing store Biba when Austin first came into contact with Mercury, who had just completed art college and worked in a clothing stall in nearby Kensington. Her father worked as a wallpaper trimmer and her mother a domestic for a small company. Austin was born in 1951 into an impoverished family in South London’s Battersea neighborhood. Mercury, real name Farrokh Bulsara, was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania in 1946 and had moved to England with his parents in the 1960s. Mercury and Austin met in 1969, a year before he would form what would become Queen with bandmates Brian May, Roger Taylor and eventually John Deacon. Photo: Dave Hogan/Getty Images Mercury and Austin quickly fell in love
Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury at Fashion Aid at the Royal Albert Hall in London in November 1985
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