A woman claiming to be Freddie Mercury’s daughter has died aged 48 after a lengthy battle with a rare spinal cancer.
The woman, known as Bibi, claimed she was conceived when the Queen frontman had an affair with a friend’s wife in 1976.
Her claims came to light when she was the subject of a 2025 book titled Love, Freddie, written by journalist Lesley-Ann Jones.
Bibi’s husband, Thomas, announced her death on Thursday, saying she died peacefully after a long battle with chordoma, a slow-growing bone cancer that begins in the spine.
The former doctor lived in France and leaves behind two young sons, aged nine and seven.
“B is now with her beloved and loving father in the world of thoughts. Her ashes were scattered to the wind over the Alps,” he told the Daily Mail.
Bibi claimed she had a close relationship with Mercury, and that Queen songs Bijou and Don’t Try So Hard were written about her.
“I am devastated by the loss of this woman who became my close friend, who had come to me with a selfless aim: to brush aside all those who have had free rein with Freddie’s story for 32 years, to challenge their lies and their rewriting of his life, and to deliver the truth,” Jones told the publication.
“At the end of her life, it was all that mattered to her. She was very ill throughout the four years that we worked together. But she was on a mission. She put herself and her own needs last.”
Love, Freddie is based on the journals Bibi claims Mercury gave to her before he died in 1991.
“Freddie Mercury was and is my father,” Bibi said in a handwritten letter ahead of the book’s publication.
“We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life. He adored me and was devoted to me.”
When the book was released in September 2025, those who were close to Mercury cast doubt on Bibi’s claims.
His close friend and former fiancée, Mary Austin, said she was sceptical because Mercury had never mentioned fathering a child.
“Freddie had a glorious openness, and I cannot imagine he would have wanted to, or been able to, keep such a joyful event a secret, either from me or other people closest to him,” Ms Austin, who inherited the majority of Mercury’s estate, told The Sunday Times.
Brian May’s wife, Anita Dobson, also dismissed the claims as “fake news”.
“It seems inconceivable that he would have a child with someone we don’t know about,” she told The Mirror.
Bibi responded at the time, saying she was “devastated” by those questioning the validity of her claims.