With a study friendship spanning 15 years, fellow singer Peter Straker was Mercury's best buddy. The West End star had bonded over the 1970s and survived it all. As Mercury's star soared, their friendship never faltered. Straker scored leading roles in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show, Tommy and Hair.
Freddie Mercury may have been one of the more extroverted singers of his generation but his closest friend in Queen was the quietest member. Peter Freestone was a PA to the band and witnessed the friendship from close up and has revealed what bonded Freddie with bassist John Deacon.
What happened to Jim Hutton? Sadly, Jim Hutton passed away in 2010 at the age of 60 on New Year's Day. While he, like Freddie, suffered from HIV, his death was actually caused by lung cancer.
Singer and West End star Peter Straker had been Freddie Mercury's closest friend and confidant for over fifteen years. But when Straker got too close to discovering the tragic secret about Mercury's illness, Freddie cut his best friend out of his life and Straker never saw the Queen star again.
On June 2, 1979, Hutton died of liver cancer, two days after his 45th birthday, and a month after being diagnosed. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at the Garden of Roses area of Westwood Village Memorial Park.
'Yes, I love you,' I whispered and kissed him on the forehead." On the morning of November 24, Freddie woke at 6am and spoke what would be his last two words: 'Pee, Pee'. After helping the 'terribly weak' star to the toilet, Jim carried him back to the bed.
He was devastated by her decision, he said. However, Mercury did leave him with £500,000 (nearly $1 million, per the 1991 conversion rate), which he used to move back to Ireland. He also wrote a book about their relationship, simply titled Mercury and Me. Hutton died on January 1, 2010, after a long battle with cancer.
The unusual and life-long love between Mary Austin and the singer was played out on screen in the Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody and Freddie Mercury said he'd love her "Until I draw my last breath. We'll probably grow old together".
By Freddie Mercury's side throughout the rollercoaster ride of his career, Peter Freestone lived with the singer in his Kensington home, Garden Lodge, and was with him throughout his battle with AIDS and the last days of the singer's life.
Garden Lodge is Mercury's home in Kensington, west London that he left, along with its contents, to close friend Mary Austin when he died in 1991. Items including an iconic crown and robe, by designer Diana Mosley, that he wore during his final Queen tour, in 1986, are expected to sell for between £60,000-80,000.
The guests included the star's bandmates and their wives, as well as Elton John, Mary Austin and Freddie's partner Jim Hutton.
I think, sadly, because Jim Hutton was HIV+ and Freddie thought his husband would soon suffer the same fate. He gave Jim enough money to live comfortably and have a house in Ireland, but Freddie wanted Garden Lodge to be a family home and Mary was married with one child and another on the way.
Now the huge success of the movie about the band Queen will see Mary Austin, the former fiancee of lead singer Freddie Mercury, scoop around $75million in royalties. She met Mercury in 1970 when she was a 19-year-old art student and they moved in together before he was famous.
Aretha Franklin, known as The Queen Of Soul, had a huge influence on Mercury. “I love Aretha Franklin above all other singers,” said Mercury. “She must have one of the best voices ever and she sings like a dream. I wish I could sing half as well as she does.
May revealed he and front man Mercury, who passed away in 1991, were extremely close. "We were like brothers. We still are," he said. "There are moments when he just broke the rules and he broke the rules constantly in what he would wear and what he said to the audiences.
Jimi Hendrix performs at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970
He kept a photograph in his room, copied his style and even sketched the flamboyant performer. Scroll down for Freddie's own words of adoration and the beautiful pencil drawing he created of his own hero, Jimi Hendrix.
Mercury and Deacon were known to be particularly close throughout Queen's career, and Mercury's former assistant Peter Freestone explains in his memoir why the singer believed Deacon to be primarily responsible for Queen's survival through its early-'70s tumult.
Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin were so close, that at one stage Freddie asked her to marry him, and he also left her half of his £75 million estate, including the £25 million Georgian mansion in Kensington. They did in fact date, and although they split up as romantic partners, they remained very close friends.
Jim Hutton and Freddie Mercury enjoyed seven love-filled years together before the latter died of AIDS-related complications on November 24, 1991. Vintage EverydayFreddie Mercury and Jim Hutton remained a couple until the singer's untimely death in 1991.
Why did Mary Austin leave Freddie Mercury? Austin and Mercury were engaged, but she ended their romantic and physical relationship when Mercury came out to her as bisexual after she initially thought he'd been having an affair with another woman.
Rami himself has revealed that he is lip-syncing, but it's not just Freddie's voice that we hear. "It is an amalgamation of a few voices," he told the Metro US. "But predominantly it is my hope and the hope of everyone that we will hear as much Freddie as possible. I think that is the goal for all of us."
This story is real. Best Picture nominee Bohemian Rhapsody is a true story based on the life of singer Freddie Mercury. That said, it does take some liberties with the story, simplifying many aspects to keep the story moving and to make it a bit more flashy.
That relationship also ended in divorce in 2002. Mary has remained at One Garden Lodge through the years and rare interviews she gave from inside the home showed she had changed very little of Freddie's lavish decorations. She admitted she couldn't go into his bedroom for the first three years she lived there.
Hutton, who tested HIV-positive in 1990, lived with Mercury for the last seven years of his life, nursed him during his illness, and was present at his bedside when he died.
Before losing his battle against AIDS, Freddie asked his former partner Mary Austin to bury his ashes in a private place where no one would find it. Three decades later, Mary has stated that she has honoured his wishes and kept the location a secret from even Freddie's family and friends.