Phone call of terror. Gay life ended 7-year affair

PHONE CALL OF TERROR

Pop star's nightmare as his sordid gay sex orgies come back to haunt him

Freddie in plea over AIDS scare

By Richard Ellis

 

[Photo] Seven-year hitch .. Freddie had a live-in relationship with Mary Austen [typo] but his gay instincts triumphed

 

Rock superstar Freddie Mercury poured out his fears about dying of AIDS in an anguished phone call at 4 am.

He bared his soul to his former personal manager Paul Prenter and confessed: "I'm scared."

Freddie, 40, made the dramatic call five weeks ago – soon after being told that two of his former homosexual lovers had died of AIDS.

Prenter revealed last night: "Now he is praying that he has not got it. He is very worried – terrified."

Mercury's AIDS scare is the penalty of a wild gay lifestyle in the 1970s and 1980s which was kept secret from millions of fans of his group Queen.

Prenter, who accompanied the star on tours, revealed how Mercury:

CONFESSED he was an out-and-out gay shortly after ending his only long-term relationship with a woman in 1977;

SLEPT with a string of men – with his conquests running into the hundreds;

Became TERRIFIED of sleeping alone;

Developed an OBSESSION about his own cats – even phoning from Japan to speak to them, and

LAVISHED diamonds, cars, money and other gifts on his male lovers.

 

Slept

Prenter said: "Anybody who did the amount of travelling and was as promiscuous as Freddie was is bound to be worried, especially when he knows people who have died from AIDS.

"Whether you slept with them or not you would be worried."

Mercury said in his early phone call that he had now changed his life style completely because of the AIDS risk.

Prenter said: "He goes to the ballet and the theatre and then goes home, or he plays Trivial Pursuit a lot."

The singer had an AIDS test 10 months ago. Prenter said: "He told me it had not proved positive.

"But I don't think it eased his fears. He knows the incubation period of this thing is so long that it could come through at anytime."

 

Split

Prenter said Mercury had claimed to be bisexual – but he never saw him with a woman after he split with girlfriend Mary Austen [typo].

He said: "In all the nine years I was with Queen I never saw or heard of Freddie going with a woman.

"And if he had, I would have known. I spent virtually 365 days a year with him – even going on holiday with him.

"It was more likely that I would see him walk on water than see him go with a woman."

Prenter said: "Freddie told me his first homosexual relationship happened while he was at boarding school in India when he was 14."

During one tour of America, Mercury could not keep his hands off other men.

Prenter told how the singer took his friend David Minns with him to Florida – but soon went off to the beach with a camp American dancer called Dane Clark.

"Minns screamed at Freddie calling him a 'faceless hussy'," said Prenter.

"Later in the hotel lift, Minns suddenly took off his shoe and started beating Freddie over the head.

 

Hotel

"Freddie smacked Minns in the teeth and he collapsed on the floor."

Prenter said Mercury usually had a regular boyfriend who shared his home and was given a salary.

But the star always slept around, too.

Even his change of image in the early 1980s, when he cut his hair short and grew a bushy moustache, was designed to make it easier to pick up men.

Prenter said: "Freddie's favourite saying was, 'Faithfulness is never getting caught'.

"He believes it's OK for him to mess around with other people, but that his boyfriends never should.

"While we were on the road there would be a different man every night.

"While the rest of the band and the roadies headed off to the nearest strip joint, Freddie would stop off in the gay section of town."

Prenter said Mercury loved to go to gay bars and clubs even back home in London.

He said: "By 6 or 7 am, he would probably go to bed – but very rarely alone.

"He actually has a fear of sleeping alone – or even being alone for long stretches."

It was around 1979 that Mercury met Tony Bastin, one of the men who has since died of AIDS.

After a gig in Brighton, Mercury talked to Bastin, 27, at a gay haunt called the Curtain Club and they spent the night together in Mercury's hotel.

Later, Bastin moved in with Mercury in London – taking his cat Oscar.

"He was on the scene for the next two years, living with Freddie and going on tour with him," said Prenter.

Mercury's relationship with Bastin ended in 1982, but, according to Prenter, they continued to see each other occasionally after that.

 

Group

Mercury still cares for Oscar – and another cat Tiffany, given him by Mary Austen [typo].

In 1980, Mercury met airline steward John Murphy during a trip to New York. Murphy, too, has died of AIDS.

Mercury admitted to Prenter that he slept with Murphy once shortly after that first meeting.

Prenter said: "They went back to Freddie's flat in Manhattan – but there was no long affair.

"After that, John became a close friend – part of a group of American friends Freddie called the 'New York Girls'.

"They would spend a lot of time together when he was over there.

"John was at Freddie's home in London a few weeks before his death and had to rush back because his lover, who also had AIDS, had taken a turn for the worse.

"The night Freddie rang me he told me John had been taken ill and had died from AIDS. It upset him."

After Freddie's fling with Bastin, he took up with a Munich restaurant owner called Winnie.

Prenter says Mercury lavished diamonds, a Mercedes and other gifts on his latest lover.

But by 1985, that relationship had also crumbled.

And as AIDS began to wreak its terrible toll of the gay community, Mercury realised the "fun days" were over.

Since 1985, said Prenter, Mercury has been living quietly with his current boyfriend Jim Hutton.

Prenter said: "Even if Freddie wanted to carry on in the same old way he couldn't – the people are dead, dying or in hiding."

 

 

Freddie Mercury had a seven-year live-in relationship with girlfriend Mary Austen [typo].

But it was wrecked because of his gay lifestyle, according to Paul Prenter.

When Prenter came to work for Queen in 1977 the relationship was in tatters, he said.

Prenter recalled a dinner with Elton John's manager John Reid – then also managing Queen.

He said: "A guy called David Minns came along.

Camp

"It was obvious to me then that Freddie was gay even though he was still living with Mary. A blind man could see that.

"He was very camp in those days because that was good for the image. But with Freddie, it was not just an image.

"He was definitely with this guy David even though he was still officially with Mary."

Prenter said Freddie later told him his relationship with Mary was dead – but he had trouble ending the affair because he did not want to hurt her.

Despite his gay behaviour, Freddie and the band tried to keep it secret from his fans, added Prenter.

He said that they all decided his gay lifestyle should not leak out in public for fear of hurting their popularity.

He explained: "The issue was raised when Elton John came out publicly for the first time and said he was bisexual.

"At that time, it was unusual for people to be open about it.

"We all thought Elton was stupid and that it might have a detrimental effect on his career."

 

TOMORROW ... HE LIKED HIS MEN HUNKY

 

News Of The World - Sunday, May 10, 1987

 

FREDDIE'S GAY FURY

'My AIDS mates dragged in dirt'

By Rod Howard

 

[Photo] Mercury: Seething

[Photo] Prenter: Told all

 

Bisexual superstar Freddie Mercury last night raged at his ex-manager for betraying his gay secrets.

Queen singer Freddie, 40, confessed to friends: "I'm furious.

"I can't believe he'd do something like that."

The rock star was left seething after former friend Paul Prenter told all about flamboyant Freddie's homosexual promiscuity and drug taking.

Freddie fumed: "What horrifies me most is that Paul is making money out of the dead.

"Those two friends of mine died of AIDS and he's dragging their memories through the dirt."

Multi-millionaire Freddie feels that Prenter – now living in Dublin – might be desperate for cash as he tries to get back into the music business.

He added: "In the past I did a lot for Paul. But his tales were just like the pot calling the kettle black.

"He did all the things I did... and more."

Freddie has also confided to friends how the fear of AIDS made him give up promiscuity.

He revealed to friends:

"I've become so dreadfully scared of catching AIDS I've decided to stop living in the fast lane."