Freddie Mercury's 'secret daughter' dies, aged 48

15 January 2026, 15:13

A woman who claimed to be Freddie Mercury's secret love child has died after a battle with cancer.

An unnamed woman who sparked global headlines last year after claiming to be Freddie Mercury's secret love child has died at the age of 48.

Last May, a biography called Love, Freddie, written by journalist Lesley-Ann Jones, alleged that Freddie had a daughter in 1976 following an affair with the wife of a friend.

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While Freddie's friend Mary Austin and Queen bandmate Brian May brushed off the claims, Jones insisted on the truth of the story.

The woman, known as "B", wrote a handwritten letter for the book, which was based on 17 volumes of journals Mercury is said to have given her.

"Freddie Mercury was and is my father," she said. "We had a very close relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life."

"B" added in a statement: "I didn't want to share my Dad with the whole world. After his death, I had to learn to live with the attacks against him, the misrepresentations of him, and with the feeling that my Dad now belonged to everyone.

"I cried and mourned my Dad, while fans all around the world mourned Freddie. When you are 15 years old, it's not easy. I had to become an adult without him, and live all the structuring moments and events without his support."

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B's widower Thomas told the Daily Mail that she had died "peacefully after a long battle with chordoma, a rare spinal cancer, leaving two sons aged nine and seven".

He added: "B is now with her beloved and loving father in the world of thoughts. Her ashes were scattered to the wind over the Alps."

Ann-Jones, who worked closely with "B" on her book, said: "I am devastated by the loss of this woman who became my close friend, who had come to me with a selfless aim: to brush aside all those who have had free rein with Freddie's story for 32 years, to challenge their lies and their rewriting of his life, and to deliver the truth.

"At the end of her life, it was all that mattered to her. She was very ill throughout the four years that we worked together. But she was on a mission. She put herself and her own needs last."

When reports of Mercury's supposed lovechild first emerged, Freddie's lifelong friend Mary Austin said: "Freddie had a glorious openness, and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him.

"The truth is that I am simply not the guardian of such a secret. I’ve never known of any child, or of any diaries. If Freddie had indeed had a child without me knowing anything about it, that would be astonishing to me."

And Brian May's wife Anita Dobson added: "I said to Brian, ‘Do you know about this?’ And he said: ‘Do you believe this?’. It seems inconceivable that he would have a child with someone we don’t know about."