Was Freddie Mercury Gay?

Contents:

• WAS FREDDIE MERCURY GAY?
• BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: THE TE STORY BEHD FREDDIE MERCURY’S RELATNSHIPSHERE’S HOW HE MET MARY AT, HIS FIRST FIANCéE, AND JIM HUTTON, HIS ROMANTIC PARTNER OF SEVEN YEARS.BY YOHANA DTANOVEMBER 1, 2018FREDDIE MERCURY BACKSTAGE WH BOYIEND JIM HUTTON; MERCURY LONDON WH FORMER PARTNER, MARY AT, BOTH 1985.PHOTOS BY DAVE HOGAN/GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEWHO WERE THE GREAT LOV OF FREDDIE MERCURY’S LIFE? PER THE QUEEN BPIC BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, DOWN TO TWO PEOPLE: MARY AT AND JIM HUTTON. HOWEVER, THE FILM LEAV OUT MANY TAILS ABOUT BOTH RELATNSHIPS, TWEAKG AND GLOSSG OVER PREC FACTS. HERE ARE THE TE STORI OF AT AND HUTTON, WHO ENTERED MERCURY’S LIFE AT CCIAL TIM AND REMAED CLOSE TO HIM UNTIL HIS ATH 1991.MARY AUSTININ 1969, AT WAS A 19-YEAR-OLD EMPLOYEE AT AN ENGLISH BOUTIQUE LLED BIBA WHEN SHE MET THE 24-YEAR-OLD MERCURY. AT THE TIME, HE WAS AN ASPIRG SGER, BUT HADN’T YET BEE ONE OF THE BIGGT ROCK STARS ON THE PLA. STILL, AT WAS TRIGUED BY THE “WILD-LOOKG ARTISTIC MICIAN.”“HE WAS LIKE NO ONE I HAD MET BEFORE,” SHE TOLD THE DAILY MAIL 2013. “HE WAS VERY NFINT—SOMETHG I HAVE NEVER BEEN. WE GREW TOGETHER.”THE PAIR QUICKLY BEGAN DATG. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY STEERS CLOSE TO THIS ORIG STORY, WH LUCY BOYNTON PLAYG AT. IN 1973, MERCURY PROPOSED. “HE GAVE ME A BIG BOX ON CHRISTMAS DAY. INSI WAS ANOTHER BOX, THEN ANOTHER AND SO WENT ON. IT WAS LIKE ONE OF HIS PLAYFUL GAM,” SHE RELLED. “EVENTUALLY, I FOUND A LOVELY JA RG SI THE LAST SMALL BOX. . . . I WAS SHOCKED. IT JT SO WASN’T WHAT I WAS EXPECTG. I JT WHISPERED, ‘Y. I WILL.’”MERCURY ALSO CEMENTED HIS ADORATN FOR AT WH THE BALLAD “LOVE OF MY LIFE,” (WHICH GETS A FAIR B OF PLAY BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY). HE ALSO TOOK HER TO MEET HIS PARENTS. “SHE WAS LOVELY,” MERCURY’S MOTHER, JER BULSARA, SAID A 2012 TERVIEW.HOWEVER, THE WEDDG WAS LLED OFF AFTER MERCURY ME OUT TO AT AS BISEXUAL, SHE TOLD THE DAILY MAIL. THOUGH THEY END THEIR ROMANTIC RELATNSHIP, THEY REMAED CREDIBLY CLOSE, WH MERCURY BUYG HER A HOME AND ALWAYS SPEAKG FONDLY OF HER PUBLIC.“ALL MY LOVERS ASKED ME WHY THEY ULDN’T REPLACE MARY, BUT ’S SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE,” MERCURY SAID A 1985 TERVIEW. “THE ONLY IEND I’VE GOT IS MARY, AND I DON’T WANT ANYBODY ELSE. TO ME, SHE WAS MY MON-LAW WIFE. TO ME, WAS A MARRIAGE. WE BELIEVE EACH OTHER, THAT’S ENOUGH FOR ME.”AT, WHO LATER MARRIED AND HAD TWO CHILDREN, TEND TO MERCURY AFTER HIS AIDS DIAGNOSIS. WHEN THE SGER DIED 1991, HE ENTSTED MUCH OF HIS TATE AND HIS LONDON MANSN, GARN LODGE, TO HER, WHICH SHE STILL MATAS. AT ALSO FULFILLED HIS WISH FOR HIS CREMATED REMAS TO BE STTERED AN UNDISCLOSED LOTN. “NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW WHERE HE IS BURIED BEE THAT WAS HIS WISH,” SHE ONCE SAID. “HE WANTED TO REMA A SECRET AND WILL REMA SO.”JIM HUTTONIN THE FILM, JIM HUTTON (PLAYED BY AARON MCCKER) IS PRENTED AS A MEMBER OF A CLEANUP CREW WHO HAS A TTY, BUT ULTIMATELY FLIRTAT TêTE-à-TêTE WH MERCURY AFTER ONE OF HIS R HOE PARTI. IN ACTUALY, THE IRISHMAN, BORN AND BROUGHT UP COUNTY CARLOW, WAS A HAIRDRSER WHO MET THE QUEEN ONTMAN AT A GAY BAR THE 1980S, ACRDG TO AN TERVIEW HUTTON DID WH THE THE TIM OF LONDON 2006. THOUGH THEY WOULD EVENTUALLY SETTLE TO A SEVEN-YEAR RELATNSHIP, ENDG WH MERCURY’S ATH 1991, WAS FAR OM LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.PER THAT TERVIEW, HUTTON SAID HE FIRST MET MERCURY AT HEAVEN, A GAY NIGHTCLUB LONDON. THE SGER, WHO WAS THREE YEARS OLR, OFFERED TO BUY HIM A DRK. HUTTON, WHO DIDN’T REGNIZE THE SUPERSTAR, REJECTED THE OFFER. THEY DIDN’T NNECT UNTIL A YEAR AND A HALF LATER, HUTTON SAID A 1994 TERVIEW, WHEN THEY SAW EACH OTHER, ONCE AGA, AT A NIGHTCLUB AND MERCURY OFFERED TO BUY HIM A DRK AGA. THIS TIME, HUTTON ACCEPTED. THEY BEGAN DATG AND, LS THAN A YEAR LATER, HUTTON MOVED TO GARN LODGE. HE KEPT HIS JOB AS A HAIRDRSER.THEY STAYED TOGETHER, THOUGH MERCURY NEVER PUBLICLY ME OUT, WHICH DIDN’T MATTER MUCH TO HUTTON. HOWEVER, THE UPLE DID FACE UPS AND DOWNS. “I SAW HIM WH ANOTHER GUY HEAVEN AND WE HAD A HUGE ROW. HE TOLD ME HE DID TO MAKE ME JEALO,” HUTTON RELLED TO THE TIM. “THEN ONE DAY I SAW HIM LEAVG HIS KENSGTON FLAT WH ANOTHER GUY AND WE HAD AN ARGUMENT. I TOLD HIM HE HAD TO MAKE HIS MD UP.”MOST POPULARTHE 25 BT SHOWS ON NETFLIX TO WATCH RIGHT NOWBY TARA ARIANOWELE TO SALTBURN’S TWISTED GOTHIC TALEBY REBEC FORDWH MATRO, LEONARD BERNSTE’S LEGACY AND LOV FALLY H THE BIG SCREENBY REBEC FORDOVER THE URSE OF THEIR RELATNSHIP, HUTTON WNSED HISTORIC MOMENTS, LIKE QUEEN’S SOARG LIVE AID PERFORMANCE 1985. “I WAS GOBSMACKED. YOU ULD FEEL THE EFFECT HIS STAGE PRENCE HAD ON THE CROWD,” HE SAID OF THE SHOW, WHICH HE WATCHED BACKSTAGE. “AFTERWARDS ELTON [JOHN] ME AND SAID, ‘BASTARD, YOU’VE STOLEN .’”IN THEIR DOWNTIME, HUTTON SAID THE QUEEN STAR WAS QUIET AND RERVED, A WORLD AWAY OM HIS SHOWMAN PERSONA. “HE LOVED HIS TS. I’D GET OM WORK. WE’D LIE TOGETHER ON THE SOFA. HE WOULD MASSAGE MY FEET AND ASK ABOUT MY DAY,” HUTTON SAID. THE PAIR KEPT ON FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS, UNTIL MERCURY’S DIAGNOSIS WH AIDS 1987. IT WAS AN EXCCIATG TIME, WH IENDS LIKE JOE FANELLI, MERCURY’S OK, AND PETER FRETONE, HIS ASSISTANT, TAKG TURNS NURSG THE AILG SGER.THE UPLE’S LAST NVERSATN, HUTTON SAYS, TOOK PLACE A FEW DAYS BEFORE MERCURY DIED. “IT WAS 6 A.M. HE WANTED TO LOOK AT HIS PATGS. ‘HOW AM I GOG TO GET DOWNSTAIRS?’ HE ASKED. ‘I’LL RRY YOU,’ I SAID. BUT HE MA HIS OWN WAY, HOLDG ON TO THE BANISTER. I KEPT ONT TO MAKE SURE HE DIDN’T FALL. I BROUGHT A CHAIR TO THE DOOR, SAT HIM , AND FLICKED ON THE SPOTLIGHTS, WHICH L EACH PICTURE. HE SAID, ‘OH THEY’RE WONRFUL’.”AFTER THE SGER’S ATH, AT TOOK OVER GARN LODGE, REPORTEDLY KICKG HUTTON OUT, SPE HUTTON’S CLAIM THAT MERCURY WANTED HIM TO STAY THERE. HE WAS VASTATED BY HER CISN, HE SAID. HOWEVER, MERCURY DID LEAVE HIM WH £500,000 (NEARLY $1 LN, PER THE 1991 NVERSN RATE), WHICH HE ED TO MOVE BACK TO IRELAND. HE ALSO WROTE A BOOK ABOUT THEIR RELATNSHIP, SIMPLY TLED MERCURY AND ME.HUTTON DIED ON JANUARY 1, 2010, AFTER A LONG BATTLE WH NCER. HE WAS 60 YEARS OLD.20 DEFG NATALIE PORTMAN ROL1 / 20CHEVRONCHEVRONFROM ©COLUMBIA PICTUR/PHOTOFT.LéON: THE PROFSNALTHE 1994 H-MAN DRAMA TAPULTED 13-YEAR-OLD PORTMAN TO STARDOM AFTER SHE PLAYED MATHILDA, A WORLD-WEARY PRE-TEEN WH AN LIBLE BOB CUT AND EVER-PRENT CHOKER.YOHANA DTA

WAS FREDDIE MERCURY GAY?

At one pot he claimed to be bisexual, but he may have been a gay man who got volved wh members of the oppose sex bee he was tryg to survive — and build a reer — a very homophobic world. Mercury hid his sexualy om his fayFor most of Mercury's life, the wir world didn't accept gays and bisexuals.

LGBT people were barely reprented the media, and the msage society had to offer was that not beg heterosexual was homophobia rampant, many gay men felt prsured to hi their sexualy, cludg om their fai.

Mercury's Parsee parents practiced Zoroastrianism, a relign that saw beg gay as a type of mon worship. The two lived together for several years and even got engaged before Mercury told At he was bisexual (her rponse was that she thought he was gay). " Ci like New York and Munich had gay scen where Mercury, who'd lled his sex drive "enormo" and who'd sung about beg "a sex mache ready to reload, " found one-night stands and UP FOR THE NEWSLETTERBeg a rock star allowed Mercury to ph genr boundariMercury was the one who suggted namg the band Queen, which at the time was a rogatory term for a gay man.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: THE TE STORY BEHD FREDDIE MERCURY’S RELATNSHIPSHERE’S HOW HE MET MARY AT, HIS FIRST FIANCéE, AND JIM HUTTON, HIS ROMANTIC PARTNER OF SEVEN YEARS.BY YOHANA DTANOVEMBER 1, 2018FREDDIE MERCURY BACKSTAGE WH BOYIEND JIM HUTTON; MERCURY LONDON WH FORMER PARTNER, MARY AT, BOTH 1985.PHOTOS BY DAVE HOGAN/GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEWHO WERE THE GREAT LOV OF FREDDIE MERCURY’S LIFE? PER THE QUEEN BPIC BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, DOWN TO TWO PEOPLE: MARY AT AND JIM HUTTON. HOWEVER, THE FILM LEAV OUT MANY TAILS ABOUT BOTH RELATNSHIPS, TWEAKG AND GLOSSG OVER PREC FACTS. HERE ARE THE TE STORI OF AT AND HUTTON, WHO ENTERED MERCURY’S LIFE AT CCIAL TIM AND REMAED CLOSE TO HIM UNTIL HIS ATH 1991.MARY AUSTININ 1969, AT WAS A 19-YEAR-OLD EMPLOYEE AT AN ENGLISH BOUTIQUE LLED BIBA WHEN SHE MET THE 24-YEAR-OLD MERCURY. AT THE TIME, HE WAS AN ASPIRG SGER, BUT HADN’T YET BEE ONE OF THE BIGGT ROCK STARS ON THE PLA. STILL, AT WAS TRIGUED BY THE “WILD-LOOKG ARTISTIC MICIAN.”“HE WAS LIKE NO ONE I HAD MET BEFORE,” SHE TOLD THE DAILY MAIL 2013. “HE WAS VERY NFINT—SOMETHG I HAVE NEVER BEEN. WE GREW TOGETHER.”THE PAIR QUICKLY BEGAN DATG. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY STEERS CLOSE TO THIS ORIG STORY, WH LUCY BOYNTON PLAYG AT. IN 1973, MERCURY PROPOSED. “HE GAVE ME A BIG BOX ON CHRISTMAS DAY. INSI WAS ANOTHER BOX, THEN ANOTHER AND SO WENT ON. IT WAS LIKE ONE OF HIS PLAYFUL GAM,” SHE RELLED. “EVENTUALLY, I FOUND A LOVELY JA RG SI THE LAST SMALL BOX. . . . I WAS SHOCKED. IT JT SO WASN’T WHAT I WAS EXPECTG. I JT WHISPERED, ‘Y. I WILL.’”MERCURY ALSO CEMENTED HIS ADORATN FOR AT WH THE BALLAD “LOVE OF MY LIFE,” (WHICH GETS A FAIR B OF PLAY BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY). HE ALSO TOOK HER TO MEET HIS PARENTS. “SHE WAS LOVELY,” MERCURY’S MOTHER, JER BULSARA, SAID A 2012 TERVIEW.HOWEVER, THE WEDDG WAS LLED OFF AFTER MERCURY ME OUT TO AT AS BISEXUAL, SHE TOLD THE DAILY MAIL. THOUGH THEY END THEIR ROMANTIC RELATNSHIP, THEY REMAED CREDIBLY CLOSE, WH MERCURY BUYG HER A HOME AND ALWAYS SPEAKG FONDLY OF HER PUBLIC.“ALL MY LOVERS ASKED ME WHY THEY ULDN’T REPLACE MARY, BUT ’S SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE,” MERCURY SAID A 1985 TERVIEW. “THE ONLY IEND I’VE GOT IS MARY, AND I DON’T WANT ANYBODY ELSE. TO ME, SHE WAS MY MON-LAW WIFE. TO ME, WAS A MARRIAGE. WE BELIEVE EACH OTHER, THAT’S ENOUGH FOR ME.”AT, WHO LATER MARRIED AND HAD TWO CHILDREN, TEND TO MERCURY AFTER HIS AIDS DIAGNOSIS. WHEN THE SGER DIED 1991, HE ENTSTED MUCH OF HIS TATE AND HIS LONDON MANSN, GARN LODGE, TO HER, WHICH SHE STILL MATAS. AT ALSO FULFILLED HIS WISH FOR HIS CREMATED REMAS TO BE STTERED AN UNDISCLOSED LOTN. “NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW WHERE HE IS BURIED BEE THAT WAS HIS WISH,” SHE ONCE SAID. “HE WANTED TO REMA A SECRET AND WILL REMA SO.”JIM HUTTONIN THE FILM, JIM HUTTON (PLAYED BY AARON MCCKER) IS PRENTED AS A MEMBER OF A CLEANUP CREW WHO HAS A TTY, BUT ULTIMATELY FLIRTAT TêTE-à-TêTE WH MERCURY AFTER ONE OF HIS R HOE PARTI. IN ACTUALY, THE IRISHMAN, BORN AND BROUGHT UP COUNTY CARLOW, WAS A HAIRDRSER WHO MET THE QUEEN ONTMAN AT A GAY BAR THE 1980S, ACRDG TO AN TERVIEW HUTTON DID WH THE THE TIM OF LONDON 2006. THOUGH THEY WOULD EVENTUALLY SETTLE TO A SEVEN-YEAR RELATNSHIP, ENDG WH MERCURY’S ATH 1991, WAS FAR OM LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.PER THAT TERVIEW, HUTTON SAID HE FIRST MET MERCURY AT HEAVEN, A GAY NIGHTCLUB LONDON. THE SGER, WHO WAS THREE YEARS OLR, OFFERED TO BUY HIM A DRK. HUTTON, WHO DIDN’T REGNIZE THE SUPERSTAR, REJECTED THE OFFER. THEY DIDN’T NNECT UNTIL A YEAR AND A HALF LATER, HUTTON SAID A 1994 TERVIEW, WHEN THEY SAW EACH OTHER, ONCE AGA, AT A NIGHTCLUB AND MERCURY OFFERED TO BUY HIM A DRK AGA. THIS TIME, HUTTON ACCEPTED. THEY BEGAN DATG AND, LS THAN A YEAR LATER, HUTTON MOVED TO GARN LODGE. HE KEPT HIS JOB AS A HAIRDRSER.THEY STAYED TOGETHER, THOUGH MERCURY NEVER PUBLICLY ME OUT, WHICH DIDN’T MATTER MUCH TO HUTTON. HOWEVER, THE UPLE DID FACE UPS AND DOWNS. “I SAW HIM WH ANOTHER GUY HEAVEN AND WE HAD A HUGE ROW. HE TOLD ME HE DID TO MAKE ME JEALO,” HUTTON RELLED TO THE TIM. “THEN ONE DAY I SAW HIM LEAVG HIS KENSGTON FLAT WH ANOTHER GUY AND WE HAD AN ARGUMENT. I TOLD HIM HE HAD TO MAKE HIS MD UP.”MOST POPULARTHE 25 BT SHOWS ON NETFLIX TO WATCH RIGHT NOWBY TARA ARIANOWELE TO SALTBURN’S TWISTED GOTHIC TALEBY REBEC FORDWH MATRO, LEONARD BERNSTE’S LEGACY AND LOV FALLY H THE BIG SCREENBY REBEC FORDOVER THE URSE OF THEIR RELATNSHIP, HUTTON WNSED HISTORIC MOMENTS, LIKE QUEEN’S SOARG LIVE AID PERFORMANCE 1985. “I WAS GOBSMACKED. YOU ULD FEEL THE EFFECT HIS STAGE PRENCE HAD ON THE CROWD,” HE SAID OF THE SHOW, WHICH HE WATCHED BACKSTAGE. “AFTERWARDS ELTON [JOHN] ME AND SAID, ‘BASTARD, YOU’VE STOLEN .’”IN THEIR DOWNTIME, HUTTON SAID THE QUEEN STAR WAS QUIET AND RERVED, A WORLD AWAY OM HIS SHOWMAN PERSONA. “HE LOVED HIS TS. I’D GET OM WORK. WE’D LIE TOGETHER ON THE SOFA. HE WOULD MASSAGE MY FEET AND ASK ABOUT MY DAY,” HUTTON SAID. THE PAIR KEPT ON FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS, UNTIL MERCURY’S DIAGNOSIS WH AIDS 1987. IT WAS AN EXCCIATG TIME, WH IENDS LIKE JOE FANELLI, MERCURY’S OK, AND PETER FRETONE, HIS ASSISTANT, TAKG TURNS NURSG THE AILG SGER.THE UPLE’S LAST NVERSATN, HUTTON SAYS, TOOK PLACE A FEW DAYS BEFORE MERCURY DIED. “IT WAS 6 A.M. HE WANTED TO LOOK AT HIS PATGS. ‘HOW AM I GOG TO GET DOWNSTAIRS?’ HE ASKED. ‘I’LL RRY YOU,’ I SAID. BUT HE MA HIS OWN WAY, HOLDG ON TO THE BANISTER. I KEPT ONT TO MAKE SURE HE DIDN’T FALL. I BROUGHT A CHAIR TO THE DOOR, SAT HIM , AND FLICKED ON THE SPOTLIGHTS, WHICH L EACH PICTURE. HE SAID, ‘OH THEY’RE WONRFUL’.”AFTER THE SGER’S ATH, AT TOOK OVER GARN LODGE, REPORTEDLY KICKG HUTTON OUT, SPE HUTTON’S CLAIM THAT MERCURY WANTED HIM TO STAY THERE. HE WAS VASTATED BY HER CISN, HE SAID. HOWEVER, MERCURY DID LEAVE HIM WH £500,000 (NEARLY $1 LN, PER THE 1991 NVERSN RATE), WHICH HE ED TO MOVE BACK TO IRELAND. HE ALSO WROTE A BOOK ABOUT THEIR RELATNSHIP, SIMPLY TLED MERCURY AND ME.HUTTON DIED ON JANUARY 1, 2010, AFTER A LONG BATTLE WH NCER. HE WAS 60 YEARS OLD.20 DEFG NATALIE PORTMAN ROL1 / 20CHEVRONCHEVRONFROM ©COLUMBIA PICTUR/PHOTOFT.LéON: THE PROFSNALTHE 1994 H-MAN DRAMA TAPULTED 13-YEAR-OLD PORTMAN TO STARDOM AFTER SHE PLAYED MATHILDA, A WORLD-WEARY PRE-TEEN WH AN LIBLE BOB CUT AND EVER-PRENT CHOKER.YOHANA DTA

Among his sartorial choic were leotards, angel-wg cloaks, tight shorts, and leather or PVC attire that evoked a biker image then popular gay a star allowed Mercury to ph some boundari, but he still lived at a time when honty about his attractn to men uld have limed his reer, and the reers of his bandmat. Mercury didn't label his sexualy even after his AIDS diagnosisThe exact circumstanc of how Mercury was fected wh HIV are unknown, but the vis was spreadg through New York Cy's gay muny the late 1970s and early '80s. )As the 1980s progrsed, was obv many gay men were gettg sick and there was talk about a "gay ncer"; Mercury himself knew people wh the disease.