Real life or fantasy, Bohemian Rhapsody remains one of the finest rock songs of the 20th century

Freddie Mercury never explained the meaning of his most famous song. But as it turns 50, his biographer delves into diaries left for the Queen star's secret daughter to finally reveal the truth... and it's as surprising as it is poignant

- By Lesley-Ann Jones

IS this the real life? Is this just fantasy? We have argued the toss for years. Although Freddie Mercury never explained his most celebrated work, declaring it to be “just about relationships with a bit of nonsense in the middle”, conflicting theories are as rife today as they were half a century ago.

While Queen’s surviving members - guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and retired bassist John Deacon have always protected their frontman’s most closely guarded secret, speculation still rages.

But now, 50 years after their magnum opus was first released, I can reveal its true meaning. The baroque’n’roll classic was not Freddie’s attempt at upstaging Led Zeppelin’s folk-rock epic Stairway To Heaven.

Nor did it describe a son confessing a murder to his mother, pleading poverty at his trial and surrendering to a tragic fate. Nor could it have been Freddie’s Aids lament. He conjured it during the late 1960s and dabbled for years with structure and content.

Queen only completed, recorded and released it in late 1975. He was not diagnosed as HIV positive until 1987 - despite what their feature film depicts.

Nor was it a showcase of Queen’s versatility. The truth is more personal.

How do I know? Because Freddie explained it in detail in his secret diaries. In July 1991, he gave the 17 handwritten volumes to his only child conceived in 1976 with the wife of a close friend and raised by her mother and stepfather.

His cherished daughter was not yet 15. Freddie had only four months left to live. In December 2021, she shared those treasured private journals with me. Four years on, my new book Love, Freddie: Freddie Mercury’s Secret Life And Love tells for the first time his astonishing true story. My exclusive source? His own words.