Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin never did get married, and on that point the film gets a lot of things right. Mercury started cheating on Austin with men, and his confession went down pretty much like the film said it did — he told her he was bisexual, and she replied, "No, Freddie, you're gay."
But that's where the accuracy ends. The truth is there wasn't a lot of awkwardness at the end of their engagement, and there was no lengthy separation, either. According to Biography, Austin kind of just transitioned from ex-fiance to dear friend and a part of his entourage, and the two remained close until Mercury's death in 1991. In the film, their relationship was depicted as much more strained — and much more separate — after their breakup, and that's just not the way it was. In fact Mercury continued to think of Austin as his "wife," and was once quoted as saying, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage."
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