Freddie Mercury breaks his silence
A day before his death, Freddie Mercury made his AIDS diagnosis public and gave the disease a face.
On 23 November 1991, Freddie Mercury's press officer released a short written statement that went around the world within hours. In it, the Queen singer confirmed that he was HIV-positive and had AIDS. After weeks of speculation in the press, the time had come, he said, for his friends and fans to know the truth. Less than twenty-four hours later he was dead.
The rumours were not new. British tabloids had been speculating about his health for years. Mercury no longer toured and looked visibly weakened in his last music video. He had known the diagnosis for a long time. He had deliberately kept it to himself, partly to protect the people around him.
He was similarly discreet when it came to his private life. He never spoke publicly about his sexuality. Yet since the mid-eighties he had been in a relationship with Jim Hutton, who lived with him at his home, Garden Lodge in Kensington. The two wore wedding rings long before same-sex couples were legally recognised in Britain. Their relationship had been their own business, Hutton said later.
The statement came at a time when many media outlets met gay AIDS patients with scorn rather than compassion. That one of the biggest rock stars in the world, of all people, called the disease by its name changed the way many people saw it. AIDS suddenly had a face that millions loved.
Mercury died of pneumonia on the evening of the following day, aged only forty-five. Fans laid flowers outside his house, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" stormed back to the top of the British charts. The following spring, a tribute concert filled London's Wembley Stadium in the name of AIDS awareness. At the same time, the Mercury Phoenix Trust was founded, which still fights HIV and AIDS today.
Mercury himself chose the moment when the world learned the truth. It was his last great performance, without any stage at all.