This Is How Much Freddie Mercury Was Worth When He Died

The world's reaction to the loss of Freddie Mercury might be best captured in lyrics written by Mercury himself: "Bring it back, bring it back, don't take it away from me / Because you don't know what it means to me." That's of course the chorus to the painfully pretty ballad, "Love of My Life," which the Queen frontman famously wrote about his former fiancee and forever best friend, Mary Austin. Austin came into Mercury's life when he was just 24 and she was 19, per Biography. Over time their relationship hit a serious snag, and Austin suspected infidelity with another woman. After six years together Mercury came out to her as bisexual, to which Austin responded, "'No Freddie, I don't think you are bisexual. I think you are gay.'"

After their romance Mercury led his love life as as a gay man, but he and Austin had a love that transcended labels. The singer was quoted as saying, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage." Austin stayed with him in health and in sickness, caring for Mercury until the bitterest of endings. After his passing, his will gave a glimpse of how much she meant to him.

The New Zealand Herald reports that the Queen frontman gave Austin a king's ransom, including Louis XV furniture, a 28-room mansion, and half of all his posthumous Queen earnings. His parents, by comparison, received 25 percent of Mercury's future earnings while his sister received the remaining 25 percent. Biography says that thanks to the huge commercial triumph of the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic, Austin netted an estimated $50 million in royalties.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9l3BpbGxfqbWqv4yiqmagn6x6rsHCoWSfqpWZsaqxjKacq5ulp8Zuw8CsZLCnoqm1bsPHnqVmoJVisaqxw2g%3D