Is clue buried in his father’s will proof that Freddie Mercury’s family knew he had a secret daughter?

His signature – at 93 years old – is shaky, and the will is a long and complex document which runs to 16 pages.

However, there can be no doubt about the wishes of Freddie Mercury’s father Bomi – who died in 2003, 12 years after his son.

He left a will which explicitly excluded any illegitimate children which the star might have had.

Public records held at the Probate Office reveal that Bomi Bulsara made the revised will in February 2001.

It includes the unusual provision, on its very first page, that legitimate or legitimated and adopted children are part of the will, but that any illegitimate children are not provided for.

The will appears to be a smoking gun which indicates that the sensational – and controversial – story about the iconic Queen frontman having a secret daughter could indeed be true.

Experts explain that Bulsara would have to have made his wishes explicit because the Family Law Reform Act of 1987 removed all legal distinctions between children born to married and unmarried parents.

It meant that from that date, a child born to unmarried parents has enjoyed the same legal rights as those born to married parents, including in matters of inheritance.

Mercury’s daughter, known as B, has revealed her existence with the publication of a book, Love, Freddie, based on her father’s secret diaries, which is to be serialised in the Daily Mail from next Saturday.

She told the Daily Mail this week: ‘Why would that clause be added if I did not exist, and if there were no illegitimate child in the family?’

Mercury’s bandmates and his sister, Kashmira, have stayed silent on the bombshell, revealed by this paper earlier this year.

Anita Dobson, who is married to Queen guitarist Brian May, said last month: ‘I think there have always been rumours. 

‘The person to ask would be his sister, Kashmira. But even then, I think, sometimes if people keep secrets, they do really keep those secrets.’

No longer. The book, written by respected author Lesley Ann Jones, tells the story of a child who was conceived accidentally during a fling with the wife of a close friend in 1976, a year after Bohemian Rhapsody was a worldwide hit.

The revelation came as a huge shock to the singer’s millions of fans, who have long loved and accepted him as a gay man. He died in 1991 of bronchial pneumonia caused by Aids.

But the legendary showman, known for his flamboyance, wit and four-octave vocal range, had a number of full relationships with women, including Mary Austin, whom he met when she was 19 and he 23, long before he was propelled to superstardom. 

The couple lived together, and were engaged for a while, before Mercury came out as gay. 

They never had any children, although Mary went on to have two sons with another partner, and remained close to Freddie for the rest of his life.

A liaison with another woman – the mother of his love-child – was however something Freddie kept a closely-guarded secret. It is revealed in 17 hand-written diaries which are the basis for the book.

In chapter one, there is a hand-written letter from Freddie’s daughter in which she says: ‘Freddie Mercury was and is my father. We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life.

‘He adored me and was devoted to me. The circumstances of my birth may seem, by most people’s standards, unusual and even outrageous. 

‘That should come as no surprise. It never detracted from his commitment to love and look after me. He cherished me like a treasured possession.’

Two weeks ago, though, Freddie Mercury’s long time girlfriend and close confidante Mary Austin said that she would be ‘astonished’ if the story was true.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Austin – who inherited most of Freddie’s fortune and his home in London – said she found the idea of Mercury having a child ‘implausible’ and said that she knew nothing about it.

She said that he had never told her that he had a daughter. ‘Freddie had a glorious openness, and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him,’ she said.

Austin said she was still living with Mercury on June 20, 1976 – the date the first diary entry is said to have been written – and that they continued to live together for two years after that. 

‘And at no point in the period did I see Freddie write a diary,’ said Austin. She added they remained ‘very much a part of each other’s lives’, but that she never saw him write a diary, nor mention keeping one to her — despite the claims by B that he carried on writing a journal until July 31, 1991.

‘I would be very surprised if it turned out that from 1976 to the final months of his life, Freddie was a prolific diarist,’ she said.

But author Jones tells me: ‘This interview actually gives away proof that B exists. For the past three decades, it has been maintained in books, articles and documentaries that Mary Austin separated from Freddie in either 1973, ’74 or ’75. Reports vary, and she gave very few interviews.

‘Now she says that she was still living with Freddie in 1976 and that their romantic relationship continued until 1978.

‘B revealed the fact to me in her very first email, December 21, 2021 – nearly four years before Mary Austin said this. It appears in the book on page 176. 

‘The book proceeded to print months ago, so the information was absolutely not added recently. It was revealed to me long before she told the Sunday Times.’

Jones is able to indicate a number of other facts, vouchsafed by B, which go some way to explaining away the doubts which are being cast by some in Queen circles about the admittedly extraordinary story which she has to tell.

She says that visits between Freddie and B were facilitated by Freddie’s former lover, close friend and assistant Joe Fannelli, who died in 1993.

Jones adds: ‘B lived in London with her mother, stepfather, young siblings and nanny, in a home only a few minutes’ walk away from Mary Austin. Joe Fannelli kept people away and off the scent.’ 

Fannelli sadly died of Aids a year-and-a-half after Freddie Mercury. She adds: ‘Mary and some others say that they don’t believe that Freddie could have fathered a child, visited her and managed the logistics. 

‘But she was simply right under their noses for much of the time. Fannelli and the child’s nanny did all the facilitating.’

Jones continues: ‘B was born February 1977, ostensibly to a well-off married couple who were close friends of Freddie’s. Freddie had the affair with the wife while the husband was away for three months on business. 

‘Although it was a desperate situation, the couple overcame their anger and differences to put the welfare of the child first.

‘They decided between them that B should be raised within a loving home, in a family. How could a world-famous rock star touring the world and away for long periods recording, bring up a child on his own?

‘B would always know the identity of the real father, but it was kept secret from most. They created a triangular family, with three parents, and with Freddie visiting as often as his schedule allowed.’

Jones notes that from mid 1979 to late 1985 Freddie was partly in New York, but was mostly living in Munich. In 1979, Queen bought Mountain studios in Montreux, Switzerland.

Freddie moved into his final home, Garden Lodge in Kensington, in 1986 and was diagnosed HIV positive in 1987. 

Jones says that B and her family had returned to London in 1985 and then relocated to Switzerland in 1991, with the moves the result of her stepfather’s business.

By that point, Freddie Mercury had bought a penthouse flat in a suburb of Montreux and was in the habit of visiting around every six weeks for a couple of weeks at a time. 

Jones says: ‘He and B spent much time together. He gifted her his 17 journals four months before he died. She last saw him three weeks before his death, in November 1991.’

There was even a photo shoot, conducted by the fabled rock photographer Mick Rock. Jones says Rock, ‘the man who shot the Seventies’, conducted a secret photo session with B and Mercury in a New York hotel suite during a visit by B’s family to the US.

Mercury apparently confided in Rock about B. The photographer died in November 2021, and agents for his wife and estate have not responded to requests for comment. 

Jones says that Rock gifted Mercury the negatives, so that the photos could never be stolen and reproduced.

In a statement given to this paper by B, via Jones, she says: ‘It seems that people limit Freddie’s life to the final five years, and to Garden Lodge. But I had him for 14 years.’

‘Our house in London was very close to Freddie’s homes in Stafford Terrace and Phillimore Gardens. Later, he was living in Garden Lodge, just a few blocks away.’

‘He then spent a lot of time in Munich, while we were living in Switzerland. So my stepfather rented a house for us in Munich. Mary was not there. 

‘She was in London most of the time. Life was very easy in Germany. In Munich, [Freddie’s PA] Peter Freestone was not with him all the time. Freddie just called him over when he needed him.’

Jones adds that B became aware of Freddie’s promiscuous lifestyle after a kiss-and-tell was published by his one-time manager Paul Prenter. 

Jones says: ‘She found the story among newspapers that were lying around the house. 

‘The ten-year-old had a very difficult talk with Freddie, and “left childhood behind that day”.’

The rest of the story will emerge, and soon.

Indeed following the Daily Mail’s serialisation next week, Channel 5 will air a documentary, Freddie Mercury: A Secret Daughter.

But that startling clause in the will of Mercury’s father Bomi, dog-eared and faded though it is, tells its own story about this long-hidden truth.