Freddie Mercury's fiancée Mary Austin opens up on keeping his final resting place private

2 September 2026, 12:42 | Updated: 4 September 2026, 13:49

No-one else in the world knows the location of Freddie Mercury's ashes.

Freddie Mercury's lifelong friend and one-time fiancée Mary Austin has explained why she has never revealed the location of the Queen frontman's final resting place.

Austin inherited much of Mercury's estate on his death in 1991, including his Garden Lodge home at Logan Place in Kensington, and was also entrusted with his ashes following his cremation.

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Austin has generally kept her counsel on all things Freddie over the years, but on opening several trunks of his lyrics and letters has this week released a new book A Life in Lyrics: The Official Creative Legacy of Freddie Mercury.

She held an auction of many of his personal belongings in 2023 and has put Garden Lodge up for sale, as well as loaning a number of his outfits to the V&A for the upcoming Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things exhibition.

But one thing she is still keeping very much to herself is the location of Freddie's ashes after he was cremated at the West London Crematorium in Kensal Green Cemetery.

She has refused to even tell Mercury's surviving family of Freddie's final resting place.

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"I think if I was Freddie’s parents, Freddie’s sister, and I wasn't allowed to know where his ashes have been scattered, I would be upset and offended, but that’s the job he asked me to do" Austin told The Guardian.

"And I did it. I kept saying to them, 'I'm really, really sorry – I can't tell you'."

Asked if Mercury's family accepted that explanation, Austin replied: "His mother did, yes."

In 2013, Austin explained that Freddie wanted the location of his ashes to be secret out of fear that obsessive fans might disturb them.

"He didn’t want anyone trying to dig him up as has happened to some famous people," she told the Daily Mail.

"Fans can be deeply obsessive. He wanted it to remain a secret and it will remain so."

Austin kept the ashes in her home for two years before scattering them.

"I didn’t want anyone to suspect that I was doing anything other than what I would normally do," she said.

"I said I was going for a facial. I had to be convincing. It was very hard to find the moment.

"One morning, I just sneaked out of the house with the urn. It had to be like a normal day so the staff wouldn’t suspect anything – because staff gossip. They just cannot resist it.

"But nobody will ever know where he is buried because that was his wish."

While the location of Mercury's ashes are unknown, he is memorialised with a cenotaph marker at the West London Crematorium.

It reads: "In Loving Memory of Farrokh Bulsara, 5 Sept. 1946 - 24 Nov. 1991. Pour Etre Toujours Pres De Toi Avec Tout Mon Amour."