Freddie Mercury’s alleged secret daughter has claimed the late Queen frontman would have “hated” the Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, branding it “full of fabrication”.
The unnamed woman, who says she is the product of a brief fling between Mercury and a friend’s partner in 1976, has broken her silence in a new book by rock biographer Lesley-Ann Jones, Love, Freddie.
She alleges that the 2018 film, which starred Rami Malek in an Oscar-winning turn as Mercury, distorted both the facts and the spirit of her father’s life.
“Freddie would have been appalled by the movie. It would have made his hair stand on end,” she told Jones. “This film presents a version of him so far removed from the truth.”
She criticised Malek’s portrayal of the star, claiming that unlike the real-life Mercury, the actor “never smiled or looked happy” in the role. She also accused the producers of mishandling the timeline of Mercury’s HIV diagnosis and key events in Queen’s career.
The woman, now a medical professional, said she only decided to come forward in order to correct “a movie that is full of fabrication”. She revealed that Mercury gave her 17 journals, beginning in 1976, which she has vowed never to publish.
She also took aim at what she described as “the Queen machine”, accusing those close to the band of exploiting the singer following his death in 1991 from complications related to Aids. Mercury was 45.
Her existence has come as a shock to many in Mercury’s inner circle. Mary Austin, one of the star’s closest confidantes and the woman he once called “the love of my life”, said she was unaware of any secret daughter and insisted she never saw him write in diaries during the years they lived together.
In response, the woman said she was “devastated” by Austin’s remarks. “For 34 years, the truth of Freddie’s life has been distorted, twisted and rewritten, but she said nothing — with the exception of her comment about the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which she called ‘artistic licence’.”
Since its release, Bohemian Rhapsody has faced criticism from fans and biographers for its selective timeline and glossy portrayal of Mercury’s story, despite winning four Academy Awards including Best Actor for Malek.
