There were four silver trunks in Mary Austin’s attic that she packed in the mid-1980s and hadn’t opened since. Almost 40 years on, in 2022, she opened one. It was crammed with lyrics from songs written by Freddie Mercury – Don’t Stop Me Now, Killer Queen, We Are the Champions and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody.
It was still too painful. I felt as I did when I originally packed them – that they were his personal belongings and I was being offered an opportunity to delve into them, and I couldn’t do that.” Eventually she asked her two sons to sift through the treasures on her behalf. The original handwritten lyrics belonged to her.
As does Mercury’s house, which she has lived in for more than 30 years. As does half of his estate, which has grown over the decades from an estimated £20-30m to around £150m. In the years since Mercury died, Austin has become extraordinarily rich, although she denies reports that her share of the estate rose to 75% after the death of his parents.
Many of Queen’s fans have accused her of hoarding his treasures, of making a fortune from the band’s legendary frontman without lifting a finger, of denying them and his family access to the most basic truths, including where his ashes were scattered. Meanwhile, Mercury appeared to regard her as the one person in the world he could wholly trust and Austin has quietly dedicated her days to him. The relationship between Austin and Mercury is captivating.
Over the years it has fascinated his fans, not least because she has so rarely talked about it publicly. We meet at the Guardian offices in London. Austin has a beautiful face (when she smiles, she’s got a touch of Debbie Harry), walks with a stick, and is elegantly but unobtrusively dressed.
Everything about her is unobtrusive. Austin is here with her younger son, Jamie, who is in his mid-30s and was born a couple of months after Mercury died in 1991, aged 45. Strangely, he looks a little like the singer, although Mercury is not his father.
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