Speaker 1: Hooked, Hitched and Hung Up acknowledges the traditional custodians of
Speaker 1: country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
Speaker 1: We pay our respect to their elders past and present
Speaker 1: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Speaker 1: Islander peoples today. This episode was recorded on Walla Medical Land.
Speaker 1: Just a heads up, guys, this episode's got a bit
Speaker 1: of spicy language in it, so it might not be
Speaker 1: the episode if you've got little ones around.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Hooked, Hitched, and Hung Up, the show where
Speaker 2: we take you inside the spiciest celebrity relationship stories of
Speaker 2: our time.
Speaker 1: I'm Laura Burn and I'm Britney Hockley.
Speaker 2: Now this is one of the greatest rock stars of
Speaker 2: all time, a story that everybody knows a bit about,
Speaker 2: but maybe doesn't know everything about. We're talking about Queen's frontman, Freddie.
Speaker 1: Mercury, who doesn't love Freddie Mercury.
Speaker 2: Now, a lot of us might be familiar with the
Speaker 2: story of Mary, his first big relationship, and that is
Speaker 2: a real important parts. So we're kind of doing this
Speaker 2: episode in two parts because we're talking about Mary, because
Speaker 2: the relationship never really ends but we're also talking about
Speaker 2: another very big relationship from Freddy's life with the person
Speaker 2: that he was with when his life came to.
Speaker 1: An end, and that is Jim Hutton.
Speaker 2: All right, now, this episode we are unpacking Freddy Mercury's
Speaker 2: love life.
Speaker 1: It's a tumultuous love life, that's the way that I
Speaker 1: would use.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's some really like heartbreaking moments throughout his
Speaker 2: life as well. And I think the thing that's interesting
Speaker 2: about this episode is that on the other episodes we
Speaker 2: have picked truly one relationship, We've gone on a deep
Speaker 2: dive on one person. But because Freddie Mercury's life has
Speaker 2: been so intertwined with a number of people, and more
Speaker 2: so Mary, who's the woman who he started his relationships with.
Speaker 2: She was his very first fiance and he calls her
Speaker 2: the love of his life. She comes up throughout this
Speaker 2: whole story. So even though this is suppose to be
Speaker 2: an episode about Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton, it truly
Speaker 2: is a story of just Freddie Mercury's love life in
Speaker 2: total as a whole. As a whole, but also I
Speaker 2: think for us to be able to start his story
Speaker 2: and to really give you an idea of who he
Speaker 2: is as a person.
Speaker 1: We've got to start at the beginning. That's generally where
Speaker 1: we start our stories, isn't it, Laura.
Speaker 2: But we're going all the way back to the beginning,
Speaker 2: to where he was born, so like the very further
Speaker 2: womb once upon a time when Freddie Mercury was an embryo.
Speaker 1: No, we're gonna go back all the way. Could you
Speaker 1: imagine him dancing around as an emberor would have been
Speaker 1: wild in there? Well? Okay.
Speaker 2: Freddie Mercury was born in nineteen forty six in Stonetown,
Speaker 2: which is a part of Zanzibar now we know of
Speaker 2: it as Tanzania.
Speaker 1: East Africa. His childhood was.
Speaker 2: So colorful and so rich in different cultures. When he
Speaker 2: was born, he wasn't called Freddie Mercury, so his original
Speaker 2: birth name.
Speaker 1: Was Faroke Bulsara.
Speaker 2: Freddy's parents are passy people of western India and they
Speaker 2: moved to Zanzibar for Freddy's father's work before he was even.
Speaker 1: Born as a child, was he always like a musical prodigy?
Speaker 1: Was he doing music as a kid or did he
Speaker 1: come into that later in life?
Speaker 2: So he was taking piano lessons by the age of
Speaker 2: seven and was already very musically inclined as a little kid.
Speaker 2: When he was eight years old, Freddy was shipped off
Speaker 2: and out of his family home to a boarding school
Speaker 2: and it was like a British style boys boarding school
Speaker 2: in India. He joined a band when he was in
Speaker 2: this British boys boarding school. Say that ten times fast.
Speaker 1: Banned in the British boys boarding school, and it was
Speaker 1: called the Hectics, where he played rock and roll covers.
Speaker 1: I did read that when he was at boarding school,
Speaker 1: his friends used to to say that he had this
Speaker 1: uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay immediately
Speaker 1: what he heard on the piano, like some people were
Speaker 1: just naturally inclined that way. So he was just born
Speaker 1: as like a child prodigy, I guess, okay.
Speaker 2: Well, also at this time when he was in the
Speaker 2: y the Hectics band, so this is when he started
Speaker 2: to go by.
Speaker 1: The name Freddie, but not by Freddie Mercury, just Freddy.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen sixty four, the next year, just after
Speaker 2: Freddy had moved back to live with his parents in Zanzibar,
Speaker 2: the whole family moved to England. They've immigrated to the
Speaker 2: UK as him being a sixteen year old boy, and
Speaker 2: he's always been in this very creative field. He got
Speaker 2: a diploma in graphic design. He also went on to
Speaker 2: do a couple of different little bands. Like music was
Speaker 2: always there and it was always his passion, but it
Speaker 2: wasn't what he went into with the intention of that
Speaker 2: being his long term career.
Speaker 1: So he's doing all these little bands, but is this
Speaker 1: what's bringing him money? Like were these bands successful or
Speaker 1: was he? I mean at the corner store, Like, how
Speaker 1: is Freddie surviving at this time?
Speaker 2: He's not out there cracking big money from doing music,
Speaker 2: but he was working in a secondhand Edwardian clothing store.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like the old Royal era, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my producers like they're not in, not
Speaker 1: in Yeah, yeah, okay, we're right, Were's okay.
Speaker 2: The reason why this store, though, is very important is
Speaker 2: because that's where he met Roger Taylor. So Roger Taylor
Speaker 2: would go on to become Queen's drummer. So in nineteen seventy,
Speaker 2: Freddy joined the band Smile. He joined Roger Taylor and
Speaker 2: Brian May's band as the lead singer.
Speaker 1: I always get down his rabbit hole of like, how
Speaker 1: crazy it is that the universe put these two people
Speaker 1: together out of everyone in the world. Freddie's working at
Speaker 1: a secondhand clothing store, Edwardian Clothing Store, where he happens
Speaker 1: to meet someone called Roger Taylor. Combined they become the
Speaker 1: greatest band of all time. What if he didn't take
Speaker 1: that job, what would have happened? Would Queen have existed?
Speaker 1: Who knows? You know what I always think.
Speaker 2: I always feel sorry for the person who was the
Speaker 2: previous singer, who was like, fuck this band, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going to go do something else, so I'm going to frown.
Speaker 1: Oh god.
Speaker 2: That was so in nineteen seventy one, that is when
Speaker 2: they're bassist John Deacon joined Smile as well, and it
Speaker 2: was shortly after that that Freddie put it out there
Speaker 2: that he thought that the name Smile maybe it didn't
Speaker 2: really represent what the band or the direction that the
Speaker 2: band was going in, and he floated the idea of
Speaker 2: the name Queen. Around the same time, Freddy also legally
Speaker 2: changed his name, so he changed his surname to Mercury,
Speaker 2: which was taken from his own song that he'd written,
Speaker 2: which was called My Fairy King. And that is how
Speaker 2: Freddie Mercury was born.
Speaker 1: I remember it. This wasn't a straight to the top
Speaker 1: path for Queen. It wasn't like they were born. They
Speaker 1: started a band and then they were number one because
Speaker 1: they came to Australia in nineteen seventy four and they
Speaker 1: played at the Sunbury Pop Festival. They were actually like
Speaker 1: booed off the stage by the audience. People weren't frothing them.
Speaker 1: Freddie turned around to the crowd and he said, when
Speaker 1: we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest
Speaker 1: band in the world. And I am sorry, but we
Speaker 1: all need a little bit of Freddy's confidence to be
Speaker 1: booed off the stage and be like I'm going to
Speaker 1: come back at number one in the world. I think
Speaker 1: we can all learn something from that too. You were
Speaker 1: about believing in yourself. I mean, Australia's always a little
Speaker 1: bit behind the times, aren't we. Well he really did
Speaker 1: stick to his word, because they did become the biggest
Speaker 1: band of all time, and they started touring, playing till
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people at a time, and they
Speaker 1: started partying so hard like they were to find rock stars.
Speaker 1: Elton John actually even said that Queen could out party,
Speaker 1: even him at the time. And that's saying something because
Speaker 1: Elton John was pretty wild. I mean, we've all seen
Speaker 1: Elton John's movie as well. I mean that was that
Speaker 1: said something.
Speaker 2: But there is a quote from NME Music magazine which
Speaker 2: says Queen were well known in the industry for the
Speaker 2: outrageous shindigs. Most notably was the jazz launch party at
Speaker 2: the New Orleans Fairmount Hotel in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Which featured wholesome delights.
Speaker 2: These are the wholesome delights, Brittany, including nude waiters and waitresses,
Speaker 2: a fellow biting heads off live chickens.
Speaker 1: What naked models wrestling in a liver pit? What is
Speaker 1: a liver pit? I'm assuming a pit of liver.
Speaker 2: And people sworning around with trays of cocaine strapped to them.
Speaker 1: I'm all for a party, but this is not my
Speaker 1: kind of party. This is like animal cruelty. Maybe I
Speaker 1: could get around like like fine with people strapped with cocaine. No,
Speaker 1: maybe the nude waiters and waitresses mabably not at their
Speaker 1: dialok like chantining tainum. I don't know. I have questions,
Speaker 1: but no, the rest of that is wild.
Speaker 2: This isn't this just crazy that this sort of like
Speaker 2: behavior is like synonymous with mega starret and partying.
Speaker 1: There are no rules for them.
Speaker 2: Now we need to backtrack a little bit in order
Speaker 2: to tell you the story about Mary. She plays such
Speaker 2: a huge part in Freddie's life. Throughout his whole life,
Speaker 2: Freddie was very private as well. Whilst he was obviously
Speaker 2: a very public figure and very loved around the world,
Speaker 2: he cherished a lot of his private life. So I
Speaker 2: think she actually meant a lot more to him than
Speaker 2: we probably saw. They just had something that was completely
Speaker 2: different but really really profound to them that maybe a
Speaker 2: lot of people didn't understand in the long term. But
Speaker 2: let's get back to how they actually met and what
Speaker 2: happened at the start. So Mary Austin and Freddie met
Speaker 2: when she was nineteen and he was twenty four, so
Speaker 2: their relationship progressed really really quickly. They were soon living
Speaker 2: together in a flat near Kensington Market, which is where
Speaker 2: Freddie and Roger worked at the Edwardian costume store. And
Speaker 2: then four years later, in nineteen seventy three, Freddie proposed
Speaker 2: in what is I mean? It's a very unique lovely
Speaker 2: way of proposing, and he kind of had like a
Speaker 2: bush good dole of presence.
Speaker 1: For her unique and lovely way proposing is subjective. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: that's really setting a special mood.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a special moment, and I have a special
Speaker 2: gift for you.
Speaker 1: Wait here, Freddy, what is that? Well it's quite clearly
Speaker 1: a box, Darling. What's ridiculous? Why is it so big?
Speaker 1: See what's inside? Oh it's just another box. Oh that's right. Okay,
Speaker 1: see what's inside that box? Another box? You're taking the piers,
Speaker 1: Keep going, Darling, Freddy, it's beautiful inside.
Speaker 2: The final small little box was an engagement ring made
Speaker 2: out of jade, which I love. That is something different,
Speaker 2: not a diamond.
Speaker 1: I love that they got together and Mary fell in
Speaker 1: love with him before he famous. He was just in
Speaker 1: a little apartment. He didn't have the money yet, he
Speaker 1: didn't have the fame. She just loved him for who
Speaker 1: he was, and he grew into that and she grew
Speaker 1: with him. And I think that's why their love lasted
Speaker 1: so many years, because they knew each other and they
Speaker 1: had a foundation. And I guess, Freddie, it would be
Speaker 1: so hard if you had that level of fame to
Speaker 1: trust people. And I think you would question everyone that
Speaker 1: came into your life. Everyone has an ulterior motive. Everyone
Speaker 1: wants something for you. He was holding onto something and
Speaker 1: someone that he could trust wholeheartedly because she was there
Speaker 1: from the beginning. So I think that's a really beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: At the time, she thought he was heterosexual, like she
Speaker 2: thought that they were in a long term They're going
Speaker 2: to be in a heterosexual relationship. But Mary started to
Speaker 2: realize either he wasn't aware of his own sexuality yet,
Speaker 2: he wasn't ready to admit what his sexuality was, but
Speaker 2: there was a like it didn't line up, and she
Speaker 2: was suspicious of it. And it was Mary who was
Speaker 2: the one who who brought it up with Freddie and
Speaker 2: was like, I think you are bisexual. So from all reports,
Speaker 2: it was Mary who pushed Freddy to have those conversations
Speaker 2: and who pushed Freddy to be more transparent around his sexuality.
Speaker 2: There is actually an interview which came from Enemy magazine,
Speaker 2: and the interviewer asked Freddy at the time, so how
Speaker 2: about being bent. This was in nineteen seventy four, so
Speaker 2: it was not long after Mary and Freddy had actually
Speaker 2: gotten engaged. So even though he was living this heterosexual
Speaker 2: life with a fiance, there was still some speculation and
Speaker 2: rumor around what his sexuality was.
Speaker 1: Imagine an interviewer asking anyone, oh, you would verien age,
Speaker 1: how about being bent? As a question, you'd never It's
Speaker 1: so invasive and outrageous that somebody could think that they're
Speaker 1: entitled to that information from someone different world, different world
Speaker 1: and different time. And Freddie's response to that was, you.
Speaker 2: Were a crafty cow. Let's put it this way. There's
Speaker 2: times when I was young and green. It's a thing
Speaker 2: schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to elaborate any further. There have been
Speaker 2: some other reports that have come out where Freddy has
Speaker 2: commented that that is where his first sexual experiences happened.
Speaker 2: But imagine being in Mary's position, where you've just gotten
Speaker 2: engaged and there's these speculations around your partner's sexuality and
Speaker 2: whether they're being transparent with you or not.
Speaker 1: I also love his answers. They're always so ambiguous, Like
Speaker 1: he's like, he gives an answer, but you're like, I
Speaker 1: don't you finished the conversation. You're like, don't actually know
Speaker 1: what he said. You're like, you didn't answer anything. He
Speaker 1: could have been. A politician or a musician is what
Speaker 1: he could have been.
Speaker 2: It's believed that Freddy started secretly dating men towards the
Speaker 2: end of his relationship with Mary, so there was some
Speaker 2: overlap there. And obviously if you're being cheated on, that's
Speaker 2: when Mary started to feel suspicious that something was going on.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, if you're partnersheating on you with men, you
Speaker 1: would be suspicious as well.
Speaker 2: You'd be right, you'd be suspicious anyway. Like if it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter who, what the sex of the partner is,
Speaker 2: if there's cheating going on, you usually can sense that
Speaker 2: something has shifted. I just want to read this one quote,
Speaker 2: which was from two thousand and interview with Okay magazine,
Speaker 2: and Mary said, I told him something is going on,
Speaker 2: and I just feel like there is a noose around
Speaker 2: my neck. I think it's time for me to go.
Speaker 2: But he insisted nothing wrong. Then his life rocketed, the
Speaker 2: band got successful. Things were never going to be the
Speaker 2: same after that, and that's when our relationship cooled. I
Speaker 2: felt that he was avoiding any confrontation with me. When
Speaker 2: I came home from work, he just wouldn't be there.
Speaker 2: He would come in late we weren't as close as
Speaker 2: what we had been in the past. That was the
Speaker 2: time when everything coincided, his career was going gangbusters and
Speaker 2: their relationship was starting to fizzle.
Speaker 1: I mean, it must be so hard to be living
Speaker 1: I guess a lie like living a relationship for Freddie,
Speaker 1: he obviously loved Mary very very much, but not in
Speaker 1: the way that he wanted from a partner. It must
Speaker 1: be really, really hard to feel like you can't live
Speaker 1: your true life and be your authentic self. And he
Speaker 1: would have felt like he was trapped in a box,
Speaker 1: like how do you break away from that? And it's
Speaker 1: not even a normal situation. You have to break away
Speaker 1: from that and find out who you are and what
Speaker 1: you want in front of the entire world. I cannot
Speaker 1: imagine the pressure that he would have felt.
Speaker 2: Mary went to Freddy and said, I'll never forget that moment.
Speaker 2: I remember saying to him, no, fred I don't think
Speaker 2: that you're bisexual.
Speaker 1: I think that you were gay.
Speaker 2: That quote is from an interview that Mary actually did
Speaker 2: with The Daily Mail. Mary also remembers that it was
Speaker 2: an affirming moment for Freddy as well, because Freddie went
Speaker 2: on to say it felt good about being able to
Speaker 2: finally have revealed his bisexuality to someone. So it was
Speaker 2: almost for him like this huge weight had been lifted
Speaker 2: and he didn't have to live a lie to the
Speaker 2: person who he loved the most in the world. And eventually,
Speaker 2: which is the craziest part of this whole story, is
Speaker 2: that Mary moved out. So Mary moved out of their
Speaker 2: shared apartment, but she moved out to a place that
Speaker 2: was only just around the corner because he wanted her
Speaker 2: to stay close to him. So Mary told Okay Magazine,
Speaker 2: Eventually I found a place nearby which he wanted me
Speaker 2: to have. It was perfect for a single person such
Speaker 2: as myself. His music publishing company bought it for me
Speaker 2: for thirty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1: So he bought her a house and they lived down
Speaker 1: the road. And I think that this is just such
Speaker 1: a beautiful thing to say that, Okay, the romantic side
Speaker 1: has ended, but we still love each other. And Mary said,
Speaker 1: one thing which was always constant was the love. We
Speaker 1: knew we could trust each other and we were safe
Speaker 1: with it each other. We knew that we could never
Speaker 1: hurt each other on purpose. That was from Okay Magazine
Speaker 1: in two thousand. But I think that that's just a
Speaker 1: really beautiful thing to say. We still trust each other
Speaker 1: and we've got each other's back and we always will.
Speaker 2: This is hook hitched and hung up, and we are
Speaker 2: digging into the great loves of Freddie Mercury, one of
Speaker 2: the most iconic rock stars of our time. Now, we've
Speaker 2: been talking a fair bit about Freddie's relationship with Mary Austin,
Speaker 2: but we've reached the time in his life where he
Speaker 2: started to date more and more men. So firstly, there
Speaker 2: was a man named David Mins. They lived together in
Speaker 2: an apartment that Freddie bought, and it's believed that Freddie
Speaker 2: wrote the very famous song which is You Take My
Speaker 2: Breath Away and good old fashioned lover Boys about this man. Now,
Speaker 2: that relationship didn't last all that long because he, like
Speaker 2: I said, wanted to keep it private. And I think
Speaker 2: that there's this reoccurring theme in Freddie's relationships where he
Speaker 2: doesn't want to publish we talk about or acknowledge his relationships,
Speaker 2: and his partners become quite upset by that and it
Speaker 2: becomes a tension point in their relationships. He then also
Speaker 2: goes on to date Vince the Barman. It's a bit
Speaker 2: of an interesting one, because you would think that the
Speaker 2: world's biggest superstar wanting to date you and then saying
Speaker 2: come with me on tour. Vince the Barman turned around
Speaker 2: and said, I'm not going to come on tour with you.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to quit my job and sacrifice my
Speaker 2: life to come and slot into your life and do
Speaker 2: what you want to do, because you're probably just going
Speaker 2: to drop me six months later.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, isn't It's crazy to think that you'd say
Speaker 1: no toe someone saying give up your bard job to
Speaker 1: come travel the world with me and see the riches,
Speaker 1: and you're like mad, Rather do you? I'd rather say yeah.
Speaker 1: He probably did know that he was just going to
Speaker 1: dump him in six months time.
Speaker 2: So after this is a period where Freddie dates Winnie
Speaker 2: Kirschberger and he is a German restauranteur. I guess that
Speaker 2: this is a really significant one because after dating Mary,
Speaker 2: this is the first person that Freddie says was his
Speaker 2: deep love. He would call Winnie his husband, even though
Speaker 2: obviously gay marriage was illegal at that time. He wrote
Speaker 2: It's a Hard Life about Winnie Kirschberger, and they lived
Speaker 2: together for three years. Freddy also bought Winnie a flat
Speaker 2: there's a real theme of.
Speaker 1: I love you have a flat. Hey, here's another flat,
Speaker 1: live by me. Here's another one. He might have just
Speaker 1: had like a compound where all his ex lovers lived
Speaker 1: in flats on the farm. That would have been ideal.
Speaker 1: Happens on a big padding somewhere else. I just love
Speaker 1: you all. They didn't last long. They ended up breaking
Speaker 1: up because apparently there was just too much difficulty with
Speaker 1: the language barrier because he was German, and I think
Speaker 1: that is a big deal. If you can't openly communicate,
Speaker 1: I guess that is the demise of the relationship. And
Speaker 1: that's what Freddy says happened in that relationship.
Speaker 2: Next in the line of relationships was one that was
Speaker 2: a very problematic. So Freddy dated a man named Bill
Speaker 2: Reid in nineteen eighty two. This was an explosive, volatile,
Speaker 2: terrible relationship, and there was also assault that happened in
Speaker 2: this relationship. Bill actually bit Freddy on the hand and
Speaker 2: Freddie ended up in hospital with the like the Bible,
Speaker 2: So it must have been bad enough to end up
Speaker 2: in hospital. There was reports that before a big performance
Speaker 2: on Saturday Night Live, Freddy and Bill had been at
Speaker 2: it screaming at each other, like yelling at each other
Speaker 2: so much that Freddy had completely lost his voice, and
Speaker 2: that he then had to steam his voice for hours
Speaker 2: before the show in order to be able to get
Speaker 2: his voice back to be able to perform. So it
Speaker 2: just sounds like this relationship that happened was terribly volatile
Speaker 2: and really toxic.
Speaker 1: What is it, Freddie? You guys are running ten? Oh
Speaker 1: my god? Why is this so steaming? Here?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: My voice?
Speaker 2: Also?
Speaker 1: I need more lemon and money. What's that smell? It's
Speaker 1: the oils of all of us? What the hell is
Speaker 1: that ol of us? It's a dick congestant love from
Speaker 1: the chemist? Does it work? Well? Damn well? Hope. So
Speaker 1: I think what we're establishing is that Freddie's lost his
Speaker 1: voice and he's doing everything he can to steam it
Speaker 1: and get it better so he can go and perform.
Speaker 2: He did recover, He did perform on Saturday Night Live,
Speaker 2: but it was a bit of tension leading up to that. Thankfully,
Speaker 2: the volatile relationship that they had it did not last long. Now,
Speaker 2: there were some other relationships after this after Bill, and
Speaker 2: some of them were quite profound. But I mean, we
Speaker 2: weren't here just to talk about all of Freddie's love life,
Speaker 2: the one that we were wanting to focus on is
Speaker 2: Jim Hutton. And Jim Hutton is Freddie's partner, his life
Speaker 2: partner that he was with up until the day that
Speaker 2: he passed away.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I'm sorry, parted me. Hello there, Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Freddie Jim. Welcome to Heaven.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you're pretty confident, aren't you.
Speaker 1: No this club that's called Heaven? Oh of course, Well,
Speaker 1: nice to meet you. I'm Freddie. You said that already,
Speaker 1: Freddie Mercury. That is okay. You don't know who I am? Well,
Speaker 1: apparently you're Freddie Mercury. You don't know who Queen is.
Speaker 1: I know plenty of queens. Can I buy you a drink?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Have a good night, Freddy from Queen.
Speaker 2: So unlike in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, when Freddy first
Speaker 2: met Jim at a nightclub at Call with Heaven, it
Speaker 2: was a gay club and it was around nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: and Jim had no idea who Freddy was.
Speaker 1: I love recognizing him.
Speaker 2: And also, Jim Hutton wasn't a bartender as the movie implied.
Speaker 2: He was a hairdresser originally from Ireland, and the reason
Speaker 2: why Jim said no to Freddie buying him a drink
Speaker 2: was because Jim was actually in a relationship with somebody else,
Speaker 2: so he was like, no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: It's pretty crazy. He didn't recognize him though, because this
Speaker 1: is Queen already huge. They'd already released Bohemian rhaptody Don't
Speaker 1: Stop Me Now, another one bites the dust under pressure,
Speaker 1: like all their big bangers. It would have been a
Speaker 1: real kick in the guts for Freddy to be like, oh,
Speaker 1: when the whole world is bowing down, when he's like,
Speaker 1: I have no idea who you are, what.
Speaker 2: Fucking great songs are. Even when you say that, and
Speaker 2: you're like, don't stop me NOWT tell him go stop
Speaker 2: me now, it just dumb, like that's you can't even
Speaker 2: read the words without it's about coming into your head anyway,
Speaker 2: So exactly, he had no idea who he was, and
Speaker 2: that would have been a real kick in the teeth.
Speaker 1: But anyway, it goes on.
Speaker 2: Eighteen months later, the two of them meet in a
Speaker 2: different nightclub Autio and then they start dating. Imagine like
Speaker 2: going home that night and being Jim Hutton and being like,
Speaker 2: I think I said no to the guy from Kui.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't have known, but I would have seen him eventually,
Speaker 1: maybe on a TV and being like, who knows, blew
Speaker 1: that one? This is true.
Speaker 2: I think the really cute thing about the two of
Speaker 2: them together as well is that they kind of look
Speaker 2: a little bit like carbon copies of each other. They
Speaker 2: have matching mustaches, they're wearing white singlets. Actually they look
Speaker 2: like they kind of could be related. But it does
Speaker 2: look cute.
Speaker 1: They moved pretty fast, didn't they, because they moved in
Speaker 1: together after any about a year.
Speaker 2: Although they were supposed to be in a committed relationship.
Speaker 2: And this seems to be something that kind of comes
Speaker 2: up throughout a lot of Freddy's dating is his own promiscuities,
Speaker 2: having affairs or having one night stands, which unfortunately seems
Speaker 2: like it's synonymous with that type of like complete rock
Speaker 2: star stardom.
Speaker 1: Well, he was seen leaving Heaven that nightclub with another man.
Speaker 2: It came out that Freddy had cheated on Jim with
Speaker 2: this guy from the nightclub.
Speaker 1: Well supposedly they'd been seen together.
Speaker 2: So it was at this time that Jim had given
Speaker 2: Freddy an ultimatum and said, you know, obviously he'd been
Speaker 2: seen leaving this nightclub with another man. They'd been all
Speaker 2: this suspicion around cheating, and the ultimatum was either you
Speaker 2: commit to the relationship or the relationship is over. And
Speaker 2: that is the time Freddie made up his mind. And
Speaker 2: despite that turbulence at the beginning, they settled into life together.
Speaker 2: Deep down, I think the big thing about this was
Speaker 2: that Jim didn't care about his fame. He loved Freddy
Speaker 2: for who he was, but wasn't wrapped up in the
Speaker 2: excitement or the fanfare or the glory that came with
Speaker 2: dating the lead singer of Queen. Jim actually went on
Speaker 2: to write a book after Freddie's passing called Mercury and Me,
Speaker 2: and in the book he says, deep down, I think
Speaker 2: that he wanted to be secure with someone who was
Speaker 2: down to earth and not impressed by who he was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's exactly it. He wanted to be
Speaker 1: with somebody that didn't care who he was. He wanted
Speaker 1: a normal life. He wanted to come in, lay down
Speaker 1: on a lounge, watch TV, cook some dinner, and just
Speaker 1: have this life away from the spotlight. That's what he
Speaker 1: got with Jim. There's a quote from Jim's memoir. I'd
Speaker 1: get him from work, would lie together on the sofa.
Speaker 1: He would massage my feet and ask about my day,
Speaker 1: just really really pushing home the normality that they craved
Speaker 1: and that they had, And that's what obviously they cherished together,
Speaker 1: a life away from the spotlight.
Speaker 2: They actually did have this really beautiful, domestic, blue life
Speaker 2: together when Freddy wasn't on the road, and they lived
Speaker 2: in Kensington, a pretty historic and wealthy part of London,
Speaker 2: which is not surprising, in a house which was called
Speaker 2: Garden Lodge.
Speaker 1: I used to live near Kensington in London, actually, but
Speaker 1: I don't think I lived in a house as grand
Speaker 1: Free Mercury. I lived in a very tiny apartment. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean Garden Lodge. It's gorgeous.
Speaker 2: It's this neo Georgian style two story, eight bedrooms.
Speaker 1: Why do you need eight bedrooms and there's only two
Speaker 1: of you staying there? Because you're Freddie Mercury. You need
Speaker 1: it for your aunt.
Speaker 2: Probably It was built in the early nineteen hundreds for
Speaker 2: a couple who were also in the arm and also
Speaker 2: needed eight bedrooms.
Speaker 1: One was a sculptor, one was a painter.
Speaker 2: It also has a full acre of landscape gardens all
Speaker 2: the way around, and it's hidden from the street by
Speaker 2: an eight foot stone wall.
Speaker 1: All I can think about is that I'd have so
Speaker 1: many dogs. I would just be like crazy dog lady.
Speaker 1: All these bedrooms for dogs, all these beautiful landscape grounds
Speaker 1: for dogs. That's where I'm going.
Speaker 2: Well, unlike Freddie and Jim, who just had all these
Speaker 2: bedrooms for cats.
Speaker 1: I know, you couldn't be more opposite, but I think
Speaker 1: it's really nice that they've got this little private life
Speaker 1: away from the paparazzi, away from prying eyes. They did,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, just want to live
Speaker 1: a normal life together. They laid on the lounge, they chatted,
Speaker 1: they had their cats, and I think they just that
Speaker 1: was their point in life where they were like, you
Speaker 1: know what, let's be normal human beings doing normal things,
Speaker 1: normal couples. Let's not be the most famous rock star
Speaker 1: in the world. And I think that that's really special.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess also with this house, like privacy
Speaker 2: was obviously something that was so paramount to them, Like
Speaker 2: they were at a point in their life where, you know,
Speaker 2: I think if you have a house that has a.
Speaker 1: Huge stone wall at the front of it.
Speaker 2: That's a pretty clear indication that you want you've got inside,
Speaker 2: is something that's special that you're wanting to keep private.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like an eight foot stone wall screams fuck
Speaker 1: off to me. I was like, don't come anywhere near us.
Speaker 2: And even though gay marriage was illegal, Freddie and Jim
Speaker 2: would still wear wedding rings, so they still considered each
Speaker 2: other to be husbands. They did everything that you would
Speaker 2: do in a union in a married union, they just
Speaker 2: didn't officially have the certificate. And I think the reason
Speaker 2: that they lasted so much and they had this beautiful
Speaker 2: relationship is all of Freddie's past boyfriends, they all wanted
Speaker 2: to come out and be very out and proud and
Speaker 2: let everyone.
Speaker 1: Know about it, tell everybody. They didn't want it to
Speaker 1: be a secret like Freddie wanted. Because Freddy hadn't even
Speaker 1: come out to his parents. You have to remember, like
Speaker 1: this was something Freddy was dealing with very privately, and
Speaker 1: I think Jim came along and was the first person
Speaker 1: to say, I respect that, I'm on board with that.
Speaker 1: I want my life with you, and I also want
Speaker 1: it to be private. And that's why it worked.
Speaker 2: And I think we can't stress enough how this was
Speaker 2: of such a different time, even though it wasn't that
Speaker 2: long ago. The views and perceptions of society were so
Speaker 2: very different back then as well.
Speaker 1: And imagine it's be a beautiful thing to have this
Speaker 1: private life and this really special moments with someone, but
Speaker 1: then also get to go and see the effect they
Speaker 1: have on the world. Because Jim got to go and
Speaker 1: see some of Freddie's biggest moments. So the Live AID concepts,
Speaker 1: you just think, this is one of the greatest performers
Speaker 1: of all time, and Jim got to sit there and
Speaker 1: experience that. There's a quote from Jim's memoir. I was gobsmacked.
Speaker 1: You could feel the effect his stage presence had on
Speaker 1: the crowd. Afterwards, Elton John came and said, bastard, you've
Speaker 1: stolen it. Imagine being off the side of that stage
Speaker 1: watching him, just being like that guy's mind that is
Speaker 1: my boyfriend. You would be so ridiculously proud. I'm proud,
Speaker 1: and I don't even know them.
Speaker 2: This is, however, where the story of Freddie Mercury and Jim,
Speaker 2: I think, becomes quite tragic. So two years after the
Speaker 2: Live Aid concert, Freddy was diagnosed with AIDS. That has
Speaker 2: such a profound impact on their relationship. Jim became a
Speaker 2: care for Freddy as he got sick. When Freddie first
Speaker 2: found out that he was so sick, he tried to
Speaker 2: push Jim away and didn't want to be in the
Speaker 2: relationship anymore because he didn't want Jim to become this
Speaker 2: person who had to care for him as his body
Speaker 2: failed him. So Freddy had told Jim, I would understand
Speaker 2: if you wanted to pack your bags and leave, and
Speaker 2: Hunton replied, don't be stupid.
Speaker 1: I'm not going anywhere, and I'm here for the long hall,
Speaker 1: which is what love is.
Speaker 2: You all right, fred I want to look at my artworks.
Speaker 2: I want to see my collection. I don't think I've
Speaker 2: ever told you where I got them from, at least
Speaker 2: not all of them.
Speaker 1: Are you sure you can get up? I can get up?
Speaker 1: But how will I get downstairs? I'll carry you, No,
Speaker 1: I think I can do it.
Speaker 2: This was one of the last conversations that Freddy and
Speaker 2: Jim ever had, and Jim talked about it in his book,
Speaker 2: and I think it's just so devastating how this has
Speaker 2: been captured that like the last days of his life,
Speaker 2: especially around talking about Jim being this care for him.
Speaker 2: Like having to help him down the stairs so that
Speaker 2: Freddie can just sit there and take in his paintings
Speaker 2: and take in his life. I wonder whether he knew
Speaker 2: that his life was coming so close to an end,
Speaker 2: or whether it was just that he was becoming more frail.
Speaker 2: But it's just this would have been an incredibly sad
Speaker 2: time for both of them.
Speaker 1: You can can't imagine what it's like knowing that you
Speaker 1: are literally living each day by the minute, you're holding
Speaker 1: on to every single moment as it could be a
Speaker 1: last I just can't imagine.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen ninety one, Freddy had put out a
Speaker 2: statement which came out via his publicist and that confirmed
Speaker 2: that he had AIDS. So even though his disease was
Speaker 2: so incredibly progressed by this point in time, nobody knew
Speaker 2: about it. It wasn't something that had been talked about publicly.
Speaker 2: He had kept everything to himself. Only twenty four hours
Speaker 2: after that statement was made, Freddie actually died, and he
Speaker 2: died not of AIDS, but of the complications that come
Speaker 2: from AIDS.
Speaker 1: He died of bronchial pneumonia. Jim and Freddy had been
Speaker 1: together for about seven years now, so it's a very
Speaker 1: significant amount of time to have spent every day together.
Speaker 1: And I can't imagine what the last few years were
Speaker 1: like and how close they would have come caring for
Speaker 1: each other. I'm sure Freddy gave something back to Jim
Speaker 1: in an emotional sense and a really loving sense, and
Speaker 1: they spent some of their best, most important years together.
Speaker 2: Jim stood by him throughout the entire process of his illness.
Speaker 2: You know what that looked like from start and to finish.
Speaker 2: He was there for the whole thing. Now, alongside this
Speaker 2: journey was Mary, Freddie's first love. Mary was there also
Speaker 2: as a kerer and as a friend throughout their entire
Speaker 2: relationship and throughout his entire sickness, which is what leads
Speaker 2: into the most sort of incredible part of this whole story.
Speaker 2: And it is around what Freddy did with all of
Speaker 2: his crazy amounts of money and his estate.
Speaker 1: So it's not what you think, is it. Well, no,
Speaker 1: and the.
Speaker 2: Thing is is, like we said earlier, he lived in
Speaker 2: the Garden Lodge with Jim. That was their home that
Speaker 2: they made together, the two of them. Now, in passing,
Speaker 2: Freddy left five hundred thousand pounds to Jim, equating to
Speaker 2: about a million dollars at that time, so it wasn't
Speaker 2: a small amount of money, but in comparison to what
Speaker 2: his enormous wealth was worth, that was a really small
Speaker 2: amount of money. But he left the estate, He left
Speaker 2: the rest of his money, and literally the home that
Speaker 2: was Jim's home, which he thought he would continue to
Speaker 2: live in.
Speaker 1: He left it all to Mary, which is insane because
Speaker 1: he goes on to say how they were live partners
Speaker 1: and how much they loved each other, and obviously Jim
Speaker 1: cared for him. In comparison to what Mary was left,
Speaker 1: Jim was left not a lot. And then the fact
Speaker 1: that Mary then gave Jim three months to leave the house.
Speaker 1: So she's come and said, cool, it's done, it's over,
Speaker 1: you need to leave. This doesn't sit well with me.
Speaker 1: It's so unsettling, and I guess we're never going to
Speaker 1: know if this was Freddie's wish or if there wasn't
Speaker 1: communication between the three of them. Jim tried to fight
Speaker 1: that and say, no, Freddie would have wanted me to
Speaker 1: stay here, like this is our family home, please don't
Speaker 1: kick me out kind of thing, and she just said
Speaker 1: you need to go. And I just find this all
Speaker 1: a very unusual situation because you think that they would
Speaker 1: have worked together to come to some sort of a resolution.
Speaker 1: It's not like there wasn't enough money need to go around.
Speaker 2: It does sound incredibly harsh that Mary would get Jim
Speaker 2: to leave his home three months after his partner passes away. However,
Speaker 2: like you said, Britt, there must be so much more
Speaker 2: to this, and there has to be more that nobody knows.
Speaker 2: You know, there's always two sides to a story, and
Speaker 2: then the truth is somewhere in the middle, right, And
Speaker 2: the other part as well, is that Freddie was cremated,
Speaker 2: the ashes were given to Mary, and Mary spread the ashes. Now, Mary,
Speaker 2: to this day is the only person who knows where
Speaker 2: Freddie's ashes remain, and she said that she will take
Speaker 2: that to her grave and no one will ever know
Speaker 2: because it's a secret that Freddy asked her to keep.
Speaker 2: So as much as I know that, we look at
Speaker 2: this and we think, like, how can you be with
Speaker 2: someone for seven years? And then that be the resolution
Speaker 2: when you think of it in comparison to the relationship
Speaker 2: that he had with Mary, which spanned for out pretty
Speaker 2: much his entire life, from his you know, from being
Speaker 2: nineteen years old. I guess when you draw that comparison,
Speaker 2: you can kind of understand a little bit more why
Speaker 2: you might leave everything to Mary. But I can understand
Speaker 2: if you were Jim, why you'd feel like that was
Speaker 2: a slap in the face.
Speaker 1: Why we definitely feel like that was a slap in
Speaker 1: the face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or like it undermined your relationship. Even I can't
Speaker 2: imagine what that would feel like. But Jim did go on.
Speaker 2: He took the money that Freddy left him. He went
Speaker 2: on to move back to Ireland and bought a property there.
Speaker 2: So it's not as though he stayed in England and
Speaker 2: you know, was destitute by any means. But it's just
Speaker 2: a very interesting end to the to the life. And
Speaker 2: I guess it was a surprising end.
Speaker 1: And Jim ended up living a very long life. He
Speaker 1: died in twenty ten, even though he battled AIDS as well.
Speaker 1: It wasn't AIDS that he passed away from an end,
Speaker 1: It was lung cancer.
Speaker 2: I hate that we've gotten to the end of this
Speaker 2: story and we don't have a happy ending to wrap
Speaker 2: it all up into a nice little bow. Freddy had
Speaker 2: to live a life that was private, He had to
Speaker 2: hide away who he was in many ways, because the
Speaker 2: views of society didn't match up to who he was
Speaker 2: as a person, or you know, we weren't accepting of
Speaker 2: being gay, being bisexual. Our social views at that time
Speaker 2: were very rigid. Even though Freddy and Jim lived this
Speaker 2: beautiful life together, I think it's really sad that they
Speaker 2: weren't able to just live it freely and openly and
Speaker 2: authentically for fear of Yeah, and it is a story
Speaker 2: of a lot of beautiful love stories in a lot
Speaker 2: of different capacities, but at the end it doesn't really
Speaker 2: have the happy ending that we're after. That's real life, baby,
Speaker 2: That is it. From as Thanks for joining us for
Speaker 2: another episode of Hooked, Hitched, and hung Up. This is
Speaker 2: a podcast from iHeart Podcast Australia, Dead sit Studios and
Speaker 2: the Kiss Network.
Speaker 1: Make sure you follow on your podcast app and listen
Speaker 1: to any of the previous episodes that you might have missed,
Speaker 1: because there are some pretty wild stories out there.
Speaker 2: Join us next time for some more breakups and makeups
Speaker 2: and some more of the spiciest celebrity relationships of all time.