Freddie Mercury exhibition opens at Sotheby's
When we lost Freddie Mercury in 1991 he was in a long-term relationship with Jim Hutton, who he met in 1985.
Yet he left his West London mansion and all his possessions, as well as his wealth and the lion’s share of all his future earnings from Queen, to his former girlfriend.
Despite calls over the years for Garden Lodge and its contents to be turned into a museum for fans, Mary has always maintained the strictest privacy over her own life and Freddie’s home – only rarely explaining why.
22 years later, Mary has decided to put everything up for auction at Sotheby’s.
Many of the almost 1,500 items are on display for free to the public at the auction house on Bond Street until September 5. Scroll down to see images from the exhibition.
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The Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own exhibition includes his prized Yamaha baby grand piano (valued at £2-3million), on which he composed so many iconic songs, and many stage costumes and hand-written song lyrics.
But it also paints a vivid picture of the star’s home life, away from the light. His extensive and impressive art collection is displayed alongside numerous personal cat figurines, tributes to his beloved feline friends.
Fans can wander among sofas and garden furniture, table settings and his moustache comb. There’s even the heavily graffitied garden door.
So why did the Queen legend leave everything to a woman he hadn’t dated for 16 years, instead of his partner, band mates or family?
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The key lay in who Freddie was at home, the real man behind the showman.
He once said: “You can be loved by so many thousands of people but still be the loneliest person. And the frustration of that makes it worse because it’s hard for people to understand that you can be lonely.
“Can you imagine how terrible it is when you’ve got everything, but you’re still desperately lonely? That is awful beyond words.”
“I can only name one really dear person who I can actually open up to and feel really happy with.”
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Freddie said: “I might have all the problem in the world, but I have Mary and that gets me through.”
And that love and bond between them never wavered, from early days in their tiny Shepherds Bush flat before Queen was famous, to his opulent West Kensingtom mansion.
He once said: “There have only been two individuals who have given back as much love to me as I gave to them: Mary, with whom I had a long affair, and our cat, Jerry. My bond with Mary seems to grow and grow.”
That never changed, even as other relationships and cats came and went.
Mary remained his best friend and also took over much of the running of Garden Lodge. And she was part of the small core group who cared for Freddie around the clock in his final months.
The star once declared of their lifelong love: “If I go first, I’m going to leave everything to her. Nobody else gets a penny, except my cats.”
When Freddie realised he was very sick and that his HIV was progressing to full-blown AIDS, he sat Mary down to explain his intentions.
Mary tried to persuade Freddie against leaving her everything, but she revealed he told her: “If things had been different, you would have been my wife and this would have been yours anyway.”
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