Freddie Mercury’s lovers who broke his heart – and the three who saved him
It's been 28 years since Freddie Mercury died, but fascination about the flamboyant Queen frontman still rages on.
Freddie was just 45 when he took his last breath at Garden Lodge, the high-walled mansion in London's fashionable Kensington where he lived with his life partner and 'husband' Jim Hutton.
Freddie and Jim's love story was cruelly cut short just seven years into their relationship when he succumbed to Aids, having been diagnosed as HIV+ in 1987.
Brave Freddie kept his illness a secret from the wider world, confiding in just a few close friends and his bandmates as he lost weight and got sicker.
Freddie Mercury's haunting last video for Queen as he battled to keep lid on Aids bombshell
He finally dropped his bombshell just 24 hours before he died, issuing a statement confirming his HIV status.
The Aids crisis was at its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, cutting vast swathes through the LGBT community as the epidemic raged.
Freddie's life most likely would have been saved, or at least prolonged, if he'd just survived a few more months when revolutionary antiretroviral drugs were discovered.
Sadly, many of his former lovers also lost their lives to the disease.
Here's a look back at Freddie's love life – the lovers who broke his heart, and the others who mended it.
Mary Austin – 1970-1976
Freddie considered his first – and last – girlfriend to be the love of his life, having spent six years in a romantic relationship with her before coming out.
Mary even nursed Freddie through his final days, and is the only person in the world to know his final resting place, as the Queen singer had entrusted her to bury his ashes in secret, terrified crazed fans would try to dig him up or defile his grave.
Freddie left Mary with the bulk of his estate as thanks for protecting him all of her life, and Mary believes Freddie did her a huge favour by being open about his sexual orientation.
"If he hadn't been such a decent human being and told me I wouldn't be here," she told the Daily Mail in 2013.
"If he had gone along living a bisexual life without telling me, I would have contracted Aids and died."
David Minns – 1975-78
David was Freddie's first boyfriend, who he overlapped with Mary in the last year of their relationship.
Freddie bought them an apartment to live in together and is believed to have written You Take My Breath Away and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy about David.
A postcard sent by Freddie to his lover read: "My dearest, I’m sorry about last night but that’s because I’m a dreadful tart! – Love you with all my heart – Kisses – Mercles xx."
However, the pair were never allowed to date openly as Freddie kept his homosexuality a secret from the public, never even coming out to his own parents.
Freddie Mercury's haunting last picture before tragic death from Aids
Joe Fanelli – 1978-79
Freddie and Joe embarked on a whirlwind romance, but Joe later broke up with Freddie after feeling pressured to constantly hide their relationship.
He went no-contact with Freddie between 1981-83, although they would occasionally bump into each other – and Freddie still renewed Joe's visa every year.
Joe eventually worked as Freddie's chef and the pair became best friends. Joe moved into his home at Garden Lodge with Freddie's partner Jim, but in the summer of 1990 came the awful news that all three of the men were HIV positive – and Jim had full-blown Aids.
Joe continued nursing Freddie in his final days and was in the house when he took his last breath .
He was said to be the only person who knew how to handle Freddie's panic attacks.
Tragically, Joe also passed away from an Aids-related illness just months after Freddie.
Tony Bastin – 1979-80
Freddie caught DHL courier Tony cheating on him while he was away in the US on tour with Queen.
He devised a cunning plan to split from Tony, inviting him out to the States on the pretence of wanting to see him, but dumped him as soon as Tony touched down.
Freddie then put his cheating ex on the first flight back to the UK – but kept Tony's cat Oscar.
Tony also tragically lost his life to Aids just before Christmas 1986, aged just 35.
Freddie Mercury's groundbreakingly brave statement about Aids just 24 hours before his death
Vince the barman
Vince – aka the one that got away – was one of Freddie's short flings, but declined to give up his job to join Freddie on tour.
Writing in his autobiography, Freddie's friend Peter Freestone said the couple "hit it off immediately".
"Vince was tall, chunky, with dark hair. Vince wasn’t overtly impressed by Freddie’s fame and Freddie always had to wait until Vince’s shift at the bar was over before they went on somewhere else," he wrote.
"Freddie soon asked Vince to drop the bar work and come away with him on tour but Vince simply said no. 'I'm not prepared to give up my life for what could be six months before you tell me it’s over and ship me back. Sorry, Freddie.' We all liked Vince a lot.
"Freddie never went back to LA to pick up any possibilities… Basically he allowed Vince to get away."
Looking back on their short-lived affair, Vince once recalled: "At that time I had a Harley Davidson and I think that's what made him interested in myself. I had seen Freddie in a video and I said to my friend 'God that guy is really hot!' and then three weeks later I'm in bed with him. I just couldn't believe it!
"I was a biker man at that time. It was macho and we didn't wear shirts behind the bar, we were bare-chested and kinda buffed… He was very special, very tender, very caring.
"Freddie was the highlight of my life, definitely."
Bill Reid – 1982
Freddie's relationship with Bill was marred by violence and abuse – Bill once injured Freddie's hand by biting him so badly that his friend Peter Freestone wanted to drive him to hospital.
The pair got into another huge fight at a hotel, which left broken glass and plaster all over the suite.
And, hours before Queen were due to perform on Saturday Night Live in September 1982, Freddie woke up so hoarse from arguing with Reid that the band spent all day helping him try to recover in time for the show.
Peter wrote in his biography: "When Freddie awoke on Saturday morning he found he'd screamed himself hoarse the night before. We had a run-through of the show that day where Freddie merely spoke his way through… We spent the whole afternoon in one of the studio's small bathrooms with the hot tap turned on and the door shut to create as much steam as possible, and I dripped drops of the oil of Olbas to infuse the steam with healing efficacy.
"The electric kettle was boiling constantly to supply hot water for the continual hot honey and lemon drinks I was making for Freddie. He spent the whole afternoon convinced he'd be unable to perform & felt he was letting the rest of the band down badly."
Sure enough, Freddie and the band still managed to pull a show-stopping performance out of the bag.
Bill was another of Freddie's lovers who died of Aids.
Freddie Mercury's final moments as he died just 24 hours after announcing Aids battle
Winnie Kirchberger – 1983-85
Freddie fell deeply in love with German restaurateur Winnie, even writing It's A Hard Life about him.
During their three-year romance, Freddie bought him a flat, car and an expensive ring, and wore a ring given by Winnie – referring to him as 'husband' to their friends.
The couple moved in together in Munich, and pals said their relationship was the first chance Freddie got to experience domestic bliss as a relatively ordinary man.
But Winnie struggled to speak English, and they broke up citing the language barrier as a contributing factor.
Winnie later died of Aids.
Jim Hutton – 1985-91
Jim was Freddie's life partner, moving in with him at Garden Lodge in London's Kensington in the mid-80s and staying with him right up until Freddie died.
Jim nursed Freddie through his HIV diagnosis and eventual death, remaining devoted to his lover until the end.
They 'married' in 1986, exchanging wedding rings and taking a month-long honeymoon to Japan.
In a rare interview in 1987, Freddie said he'd finally found what he'd been looking for his whole life while refusing to name his boyfriend.
"Do you have a relationship now?" asks the TV interviewer.
Freddie Mercury's final act on deathbed 'gave him peace and let him slip away'
"We have to be very careful, put it this way, I'm so happy with the person I'm living with at the moment. That's it."
"Are you happy about me saying obviously that is a male relationship?" asks the journalist.
"No, you mustn't. I just said relationship. That's exactly what I said," Freddie states.
After he was diagnosed with Aids in 1987, Freddie offered Jim the chance to leave him, no hard feelings.
But Jim simply replied: "I love you Freddie, I'm not going anywhere."
Freddie refused to take off his wedding ring as he was dying, so was cremated with it. Jim put the teddy he'd given Freddie while he was ill in his coffin so he would be comforted even in death.
Despite their relationship being an open secret in the media, Freddie couldn't tell his parents he was gay, even with Jim by his side, and said his 'friend' slept in a different bedroom.
Freddie Mercury's mother Jer Bulsara says one Queen track 'hurt' more than most
But, suspecting there was more to it than just friendship, Freddie's mum Jer Bulsara wrote Jim a letter after Freddie died thanking him for loving him.
Conscious of how HIV and Aids carried such a stigma, Freddie didn't name Jim or his ex Joe in his will, in case they were outed as his lovers.
Instead, he bought them both properties before he died, and gifted Jim the original lyrics to Mr Bad Guy and Bohemian Rhapsody plus his iconic Wembley jacket.
His beautiful Garden Lodge home was bestowed upon Mary, with the promise she would let Jim and Joe live there for as long as they wanted.
She will continue to own the property for 50 years, after which it will pass to an organisation set up by Freddie before he died.
Jim developed Aids after Freddie's diagnosis, but thanks to revolutionary new drugs was able to live a long and happy life.
He died in 2010 at the age of 60 from lung cancer – and spent the rest of his life living in the Irish cottage he'd built with Freddie's generous gift.
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