Queen legend Brian May had a romantic dalliance with Mary Austin before she began dating his bandmate Freddie Mercury. Freddie famously left Mary the bulk of his estate when he died in November 1991 at the age of 45, after reportedly telling her: “You would have been my wife, and it would have been yours anyway.” However Brian revealed it could all have been very different as he was actually dating the now 74-year-old Mary when the Queen frontman took a shine to her.

Speaking in advance of filming for Bohemian Rhapsody, the 77-year-old guitar legend told Yahoo! Music in 2017: "Strangely enough, Mary was the girl that I picked out as somebody fabulous, and I was kind of going out with her. And Freddie came up to me one day and said, ‘Are you serious with Mary? Can I ask her out?’ And he did, and they were lovers for a long time."

Brian had previously addressed his relationship with Mary in the 2000 documentary Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story. "I met Mary at a concert in Imperial College, my own college, and just sort of got chatting to her, because she was sitting behind me.

"I was pretty shy, but somehow I plucked up the courage to ask her out and we went out a few times," Brian admitted.

"She was very wary of anyone, and so we would generally just sort of go out for a drink and say good night, and quick peck on the cheek. And that was it really. We'd never really got beyond that.

"But there came a point where Freddie started to talk to me about her. It became obvious that Freddie wanted to go out with her. And I said, Well, look, we're not really going out as such, you know, we're just good friends. So I'll introduce you to her. So I did," he said.

Freddie and Mary went on to date for seven years but broke up when he realised he was gay. Despite this, she remained his closest and most trusted friend.

Although he was in a relationship with Jim Hutton at the time of his death, the bulk of his fortune went to his ex-lover, leading to falling outs and feuds that still resonate today. Most recently, Freddie's sister, Kashmira Bulsara, was forced to buy back her brother's personal items after Mary auctioned them off in September 2023.

For his part, Brian admitted his devastation at the auction on Instagram, saying he "can't look" at Freddie's beloved belongings being let go, as to him and his loved ones, "It's too sad".

Regardless of his feelings about the auction, Brian is still inextricably linked to Mary as, thanks to her inheritance, she is in charge of 18.75% of Queen Productions, the overall company which manages the band's earnings.