Overview

• Lesley-Ann Jones’s upcoming book asserts that Freddie Mercury secretly fathered a daughter in 1976 and that private DNA testing confirms her parentage.
• The alleged daughter, identified only as B, provided a handwritten letter recounting a loving relationship with Mercury that endured until his 1991 death.
• Brian May and Anita Dobson publicly expressed disbelief over the claim, with Dobson labelling it “fake news” and urging the woman to come forward.
• Jones says legal teams vetted the DNA tests in private and that Mercury’s 17 volumes of diaries are authentic evidence underpinning her account.
• The dispute highlights tensions over privacy and loyalty within Mercury’s inner circle and poses fresh questions about managing posthumous revelations of the star’s legacy.