The £40m Freddie Mercury Prize

The former fiancé of Freddie Mercury, Mary Austin, inherited 50% of the Queen front man when he passed away from AIDS in 1991, increasing to 75% when his parents passed away. The other 25% went to Mercury’s sister. Austin also inherited his 28-room mansion in west London and his enviable art and Louis XV furniture collections. Though the pair never married due to Mercury coming out as gay, the two remained extremely close for the rest of his life.

Future earnings of Queen are split four ways between the Freddie Mercury estate and his three surviving bandmates – guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. Therefore Austin, 67, will receive roughly 19% of the profits of the recent Bohemian Rhapsody movie, or £40 million. She did not participate in the production of the movie and appears to have no dealings with the remaining members of the band.

A film insider said “This film was created and managed by Queen, which means they can protect their share. I would expect the studio to get around 50 per cent and the rest to go to the surviving Queen members and the Freddie Mercury estate.”

See Arthur Martin & Adam Luck, The £40m Freddie Mercury Prize, Daily Mail, January 11, 2019.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.