One of the biggest Instagram fan pages dedicated to the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Freddie Mercury Online has revealed how the parents of the icon found out about his untimely death, quoting from Freddie’s dear friend and personal assistant, Peter Freestone.
Quite an active fan page, which has over sixty thousand followers on the platform, has recently come up with some statements taken from the blog of Mercury’s one of the oldest friends, Peter Phoebe Freestone.
Freestone, who described himself as Freddie’s chief cook and bottle washer, waiter, butler, secretary, cleaner, and agony aunt, touched upon the reason why he wasn’t the one to tell Freddie Mercury’s parents of his grieving death.
He said that Mary Austin, who is the old partner of Freddie and his long-time friend, was the obvious person to talk to Freddie’s mother and father at that time as she had constant contact with them for about 20 years.
Freestone also mentioned the fact that when Mercury’s parents knew him, he only really spoke to them a few times, so it would have been harder to hear that news from him, he added.
As you know, on the evening of 24 November 1991, Mercury died at the age of 45 at his home in Kensington. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.
Mercury’s close friend Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five was at the bedside vigil when he died. Austin phoned Mercury’s parents and sister to break the news, which reached newspaper and television crews in the early hours of 25 November.
Here’s what Peter Phoebe Freestone said when asked why he didn’t tell Freddie’s parents of his death:
“Mary Austin was the obvious person to talk to Freddie’s mother and father at that time as she had constant contact with them for about 20 years.
She was the one who visited them with Freddie and she would talk with them on the phone when Freddie was away for any length of time.
While they knew me, I only really spoke to them a few times, so I think it would have been harder to hear that news from me.”
You can check out the rest of the statements from the blog post of Freestone below.