Why Freddie Mercury died without telling family he was gay - and what happened next
Queen frontman Freddie Mercury died on November 24 1991, just 24 hours after telling the world he had Aids - but the icon never came out to his family
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Freddie Mercury left a legacy when he passed away in November 1991 at the young age of 45 - however the music icon also took many of his secrets to the grave.
The legendary Queen frontman was one of the first high-profile gay men to succumb to Aids when the global crisis was unfolding, yet he never came out to his own family, despite dropping frequent hints.
His mum Jer Bulsara was fiercely protective of her boy, as depicted in the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, in which Rami Malek played the flamboyant and thoughtful Freddie.
However, his father Bomi Bulsara struggled with his son's profession and they frequently clashed - causing ongoing tension between the pair which drove them apart.
Despite Freddie's close bond with his mother, he felt unable to spill his greatest secret to his family, including his sister Kashmira Cooke.
Even though he lived openly with a succession of boyfriends, and moved his life partner Jim Hutton in to his west London mansion in his final years, Freddie made a conscious decision to never come out to his parents.
It was something that caused a great deal of pain for Jer, who opened up about her sadness in a rare 2006 interview.
Asked whether Freddie had ever told her the truth about his sexuality, his emotional mum whispered, "no".
"He didn't want to upset us. At that time... Society was different then. Nowadays, it's all so open, isn't it?" she said.
Jer believed that Freddie would have come out publicly had he lived long enough to see more compassionate times.
Freddie also kept another secret to his dying days in a desperate and touching bid to protect his family: his heartbreaking Aids diagnosis.
His brother-in-law Roger Cook said the family figured out he was sick, but had no idea how serious it all was for Freddie.
"We gradually became aware he had an illness but we had no idea what it was or how serious it was. Then in August 1990 Kash and I saw a mark on his foot," Roger recalled in 2006.
"It was Kaposi's sarcoma [a dark tumour that indicated Aids at the time].
"Kash asked what it was, whether it was getting better. Freddie said: 'You have to understand that what I have is terminal. I'm going to die.'"
The final conversation between mother and son took place by Freddie's deathbed in his west London home, which he had bought for his Mary Austin, who he had treated as his platonic 'wife' since the end of their romantic relationship in 1976.
"[It was] very emotional, very hard," Jer said of their last words together.
"He asked, 'Are you all right? Did any of the media worry you?' We said, 'Don't worry about us, dear'."
Jer added: "He was so ill and still he was being so caring."
Tragically, Freddie died on November 24 - just a day after putting out a brave and defiant statement about his HIV status.
"I felt it correct to keep this information private in order to protect the privacy of those around me," he wrote in it.
"However, the time has now come for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth, and I hope everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease," Freddie added.
His father Bomi attended Freddie's funeral after his sad death from bronchial pneumonia, and the small family moved up to Nottingham away from London to be out of the spotlight.
Bomi then passed away in 2003 at the age of 95.
When Jer died at the age of 94 in 2016, Queen guitarist Brian May lifted the lid on Freddie's publicity-shy family in his tribute.
"It's probably true to say that Freddie's father, strongly committed to the Parsee faith, didn't find it easy that Freddie took the path he did, as a rock musician, and a fairly irreverent one, at that," he wrote.
"Nevertheless, the support was always there. But Jer was always a keen follower of our progress as a band, and always came to see us when we played nearby, always with huge enthusiasm. Freddie was very close to his Mum, and, I think, took a mischievous pleasure in trying to shock her."
Brian recalled one night before a Wembley Arena gig when defiant Freddie told the band: "Mother's in the audience tonight. Better throw in a few extra 'f**ks'!"
But, he said, Jer never showed any sign of being rattled by her son's mischievous ways.
"After Freddie’s passing, Jer stayed close to us - To Roger, Jim and myself," Brian continued.
"We always consulted her in our work that continued after we lost Freddie - the tribute concert at Wembley Stadium; the Made In Heaven album, which encapsulated Freddie’s last gifts of vocals and was a two-year labour of love for us; the single No-one But You, our tribute to Freddie, which I wrote at the inauguration of the Freddie statue in Montreux, an occasion we shared with Jer.
"We talked to her about the remastering of tracks, the appearance we made at the Bejart Ballet with Elton singing, which was also John's last live appearance with us, and later the work with did with Paul Rodgers, and latterly with Adam Lambert."
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