Freddie Mercury’s former fiancée, Mary Austin, remained one of his closest friends until his death.
The iconic Queen frontman met Austin in 1969, a year before the band formed. After dating for a few years, they got engaged in 1973, but it didn’t last. Mercury broke it off three years later, according to the New York Post.
Though they ended their romantic relationship, Mercury and Austin stayed in each other’s lives until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1991 — and the two loved each other as if they were married.
“All my lovers asked me why they couldn’t replace Mary, but it’s simply impossible,” Mercury said in a 1985 interview. “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.”
After his death, Mercury left Austin the majority of his fortune, as well as his mansion in Kensington and all of his possessions — which she kept for over 30 years before selling everything in recent years.
Their relationship was also depicted in the 2018 biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as Mercury and Lucy Boynton as Austin.
So where is Mary Austin Now? Here’s everything to know about her friendship with Freddie Mercury and what she’s doing today.
Like Mercury — whose parents were a court cashier and a homemaker in Zanzibar — Austin grew up in a working class family in Battersea, South London.