Queen rockstar Freddie Mercury had a successful life as one of the most famous musicians of all time.
But despite all his fame, fortune and women and men all over the globe wanting him, Freddie’s life was full of misery.
He suffered heartbreak after heartbreak, dealt with a long battle with Aids which tragically killed him and during the final years of his life the disease rattled his body.
Freddie went blind, lost lots of weight, lost a foot and was covered in Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions in his final days.
Here’s the dark side of Freddie’s life explored…
Death by Aids
(Image: Getty Images)
Freddie kept his battle with Aids private and only revealed to the world that he had the disease the day before he died.
He died on November 24, 1991, at the young age of 45 – if he were alive today he’d be 73.
His inquest later revealed that he died due to Aids-related complications, suffering from bronchial pneumonia while the disease had destroyed his immune system.
Sadly, drugs that could save him despite his fame and wealth were not yet out on the market in the 90s.
The rockstar had known he had Aids since 1987, but didn’t tell all of those around him and many did not know he was sick at all.
Freddie’s appearance dramatically changed towards the end of his life (Image: BBC)
Fellow bandmate Brain May revealed he was in “disbelief” when he found out about his pal’s health battle.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2017, Brian revealed Freddie’s body had been rattled with the disease and he lost a foot.
He told the publication at the time: “The problem was actually his foot, and tragically there was very little left of it.
“Once, he showed it to us at dinner. And he said, ‘Oh Brian, I’m sorry I’ve upset you by showing you that’.
“And I said, ‘I’m not upset, Freddie, except to realise you have to put up with all this terrible pain’.”
Blindness
Freddie Mercury performing with Queen at the Rock in Rio festival, Brazil, January 1985. The festival ran for 10 days and over 1 million people attended (Image: Getty Images)
The rockstar was almost blind and covered in Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions in his final days.
His close pal and fellow rockstar Elton John revealed in his his autobiography, Me: Elton John, that Freddie went blind.
Elton wrote: “He hadn’t told me he was ill.
“I visited him a lot when he was dying, although I could never stay for much longer than an hour.
“It was too upsetting – I didn’t think he wanted me to see him like that.”
Queen (l-r) Brian May, Freddie Mercury John Deacon and Roger Taylor
Elton, 73, continued: “Someone so vibrant and so necessary, someone that would have got better with age and gone from strength to strength, dying in such a horrible, arbitrary way.
“A year later they could have kept him alive with antiretroviral drugs. Instead, there was nothing they could do for him.”
Going into detail about Freddie’s heartbreaking condition, Elton added: “He was too frail to get out of bed, he was losing his sight, his body was covered in Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions, and yet he was still definitely Freddie, gossiping away, completely outrageous.
“I couldn’t work out whether he didn’t realise how close to death he was or if he knew perfectly well but was determined not to let what was happening to him stop him being himself.”
Heartbreak
Freddie went through a number of heartbreaks during his earlier years (Image: Getty Images)
Despite being a hunky rockstar wanted by most women on the planet at the height of his fame, even Freddie went through many heartbreaks.
From 1979 until 1980 Freddie was dating Tony Bastin but they broke-up after Tony cheated on him while he was on tour with Queen.
He was so heartbroken he even devised a cunning plan to split from Tony, inviting him out to the States on the pretence of wanting to see him, but dumped him as soon as Tony touched down.
Tony also tragically lost his life to Aids just before Christmas 1986, aged just 35.
In 1982 he then dated Bill Reid but their relationship was was marred by violence and abuse.
Bill once injured the star’s hand by biting him so badly that his friend Peter Freestone wanted to drive him to hospital.
Then from 1983 to 1985 he was in a relationship with Winnie Kirchberger and the pair dated for three years before they split because of the difficult language barriers.
Winnie also heartbreakingly died of Aids.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
