Mary Austin deciding to sell Garden Lodge and all its contents is the biggest betrayal yet
Freddie absolutely loved Garden Lodge. That was his safe space; a place that he could come back to at the end of the day and be himself in a peaceful environment after being in the public eye. It gave him tranquility and happiness. He also spent YEARS making Garden Lodge what it was. He loved every item that he purchased. It symbolised beauty and his love for all things artistic. Freddie was a collector.
This is a quote from Peter Freestone’s book that shows how deeply attached Freddie was to his things (he was so attached to his things, that he would store them in the loft instead of giving them away to other people):
“He had far too much furniture, far too many pictures and furnishings to put into one building and to a certain extent he was a hoarder. Like so many of us, he hated throwing things away. This reminds me of the occasions like Christmas and birthdays when he received so many gifts which, as they revealed themselves on being unwrapped, we would declare to be a “Loft job!” This verdict meant that under no circumstances would it be thrown away but merely that there was absolutely no place for it in any design scheme in any of his households. Instead, the gift was relegated to the capacious space in Garden Lodge’s loft.”
Clearly Freddie was deeply attached to his house and to his possessions. He took pride in what he owned. He loved it deeply and cherished it. He was not willing to let his things go, even in death. He even said so himself (albeit in a tongue-in-cheek manner):
“If I'm dead and I want to be buried with all my treasures, like Tutankhamen, I'll do it. If I want a pyramid in Kensington, and I can afford it, I'll have it. Wouldn't that be fab?”
“I'm not giving any of my stuff away when I'm dead. I'm going to hoard it. I want to be buried with all my stuff. Anybody who wants it, can come with me. There'll be lots of room.”
He was so invested in Garden Lodge, that he essentially designed it from scratch. He was so detail-oriented and extremely sure of what he wanted Garden Lodge to look like, to the point that he did most of the designs himself. Even Mary (of all people) said this:
“He couldn’t get the decorator to match the ideas that he had in his head, so he had to do it himself,” says Austin, adding that Mercury did a design with pinks, greens and yellows on the wall.
With all the evidence provided above, it is pretty clear to see that GL and all its contents meant so much to Freddie. He put so much emphasis on the most meticulous designs of the house. He took joy in purchasing art and all other various items that made the house stand out in a beautiful and unique way.
Freddie gave Mary his house as a place for her and her children to comfortably live in. He wanted it to be a house of love, joy, friendship, family (essentially, to continue with what it had always been). But as we obviously know, when Mary took charge, this was never the case. It became a quiet, unhappy, boring place (mostly due to the fact that Freddie had passed away, and she went ahead to cruelly kick everyone out of the premise).
She goes ahead to keep the house for over three decades. Within this time, she tried to sell the house and its contents at least twice. Peter Freestone said that Mary tried to auction off Freddie’s items a few months after he had passed away:
“Sothebys had already been appointed as the inventory agents and had listed and catalogued the contents of the house. There was little room for any manoeuvre. Everything had Sothebys stickers all over it. This situation was totally opposite to what Freddie had wanted. To have imagined that his home could have been turned into a preview of an auction sale would have been anathema to him. But he wasn't there.”
This is also what was revealed in 2024 after the Sotheby’s action, when Mary put up Garden Lodge on the market:
Austin first went to Knight Frank and explored selling the house 25 years ago, though she wasn't quite ready to part with it then and, she says, appreciated that the agent she spoke to made sure to ask her if she was sure about a sale. She is now, she says, and is coming to terms with the fact that a future buyer will likely make changes to the property.
She says the reason why it took her so long to sell the house is because she was “not ready”. She apparently was not ready to move on and felt that she needed to hold on to everything. Now that she’s older, she is now ready to move on with her life.
On the surface, that seems plausible, but once you actually look deeper into the situation:
1. Why get closure over 30 years later? Why would she start a new chapter of her life when she’s elderly, and not when she was much younger and had more reason to do so? Back then, she was a new mother and had very young children to take care of. I thought that would have been a good reason to move on. If the whole point of the sale was to experience catharsis, she would have done it ages ago. Not as an old lady. Old people don’t like massive changes to their lifestyle, so it doesn’t make sense to me why she would drastically change her lifestyle at 72, when most people her age are looking for peace and stability at that point in their lives.
2. It has been reported that she didn’t even live in Garden Lodge, but rather, in Logan Mews. So the idea that she was attached to GL and just couldn’t let it go for sentimental reasons is total and complete BS.
She also contradicted herself when it came to matters of Garden Lodge. This is a quote from 2023 after Mary did the Sotheby’s auction:
Now the house is empty, she says, it's as if she has been transported back to the day of viewing it for the first time, and Freddie making plans. It's such a warm house, a family house, really? She has not yet decided whether to sell or keep it.
Then in 2024, after putting up GL on the market, she says this:
The plan was to do the auction and then think about selling the house, Austin says.
She contradicts herself within the short time period of one year. The previous year, it’s that she was unsure of what to do with the house, and the very next year, it’s that the plan was to sell GL all along??? Nah, missed me with that BS.
Clearly, she didn’t have a fixed plan for GL. This shows that there is no way that Freddie had told her to sell GL “when the time was right”. If he had told her that, she would have known what she was going to do with the house in 2023. The decision to sell the house was 100% her decision. When Freddie gave her the house, he didn’t put any conditions on how she was supposed to own it. He gave it to her with 100% altruistic motives. He just wanted her to be happy and financially stable for life. He didn’t put any restrictions on what she could or couldn’t do with the house or his items. If he did, he definitely would have put it in writing. Which is why I don’t believe for one second that Freddie didn’t want his house to be a museum. If this was the case, he would have put it in his will for his house to be reserved exclusively as a residential property. Remember, Freddie was extremely detail-oriented. So if he felt so strongly about his house not being turned into a museum, he definitely would have put it in writing, which would have been legally binding. Based off his own words, clearly he was against the idea of strangers owning his possessions. With a museum, those items would still belong to him. They would forever be associated with him, which is what he wanted (based on what he said).
Since he didn’t put in writing that he did not want his house turned into a museum, this means Mary can legally do whatever she wants to the house. But morally, she is absolutely deplorable. Just because she could sell the house doesn’t mean she should have. Believe it or not, but Mary has an unwritten duty as a custodian to GL and to Freddie’s possessions. Her work should be in the best interest of Freddie as his custodian; as the person that he trusted so deeply. From the quotes presented above, it is quite clear to see that Freddie LOVED his house. Opening a museum would have been more in line with his playful, but meaningful wish to be “buried with all his stuff”. That would have enabled him to still have his property attached to his name and to his legacy.
Unfortunately, Mary is an entitled hypocrite who backtracks her words. One minute, she understands her role as the custodian to Freddie’s world, and the next, she is tired of her custodian role and only wants people to address her as the “owner” of GL:
In 1992, she said this: "He did joke one day to me: I hope I've left you enough money to take care of it all. But to me he still owns every single thing. So each time I come here, Freddie is still there. The house is still his. I'm just the keeper”.
In 2000, she said this: “Some of the fans even told me I was only the keeper of the house. That hurt.”
Mary defended her actions of not opening a museum by saying that GL was private. She has insisted that by opening a museum, this would violate his privacy. But get this…she’s also the same person who invited the PRESS to GL in 2000 to do some cringeworthy photoshoot, and she opened up an exhibit of Freddie’s things in 2023 for months before the auction so that people could see his “inner world”. And when the time for the auction arrived, it was anything but respectful of his privacy. She apparently sold very personal items like Christmas cards, table seating charts for Freddie’s GL dinners, and even his day-to-day loungewear like sweatshirts. For her to say “it’s all about privacy”, then to go ahead and violate his privacy in such a greedy and opportunistic way is beyond hypocritical.
She has also defended her actions by saying that Freddie loved auctions, so he would have loved his items being sold at a Sotheby’s auction house. From the quote that I provided above from Phoebe, it is very very clear that Freddie loved BUYING things FROM auction houses, not SELLING his things TO the auction houses. He loved auctions because of what he could GET, not what he could GIVE. There is no proof at all that Freddie had ever sold his own possessions to an auction house. Like Phoebe said, Freddie would store all his things in the loft rather than part with them.
I read an article that put it right on the nose:
“To deprive a family of precious items belonging to a loved one while equally cashing in on fans love of him by selling the gate to his home screams greed. I'm glad Kashmira managed to retrieve some of her brother's posessions but she should never have had to buy them back.”
Mary could have still turned GL into a museum, but in a RESPECTFUL and DIGNIFIED way that still honoured Freddie’s desire for privacy, but also without turning everything that he ever loved into a commercialised item for profit and exploitation. She could have done something like this:
1. Limit the numbers of people visiting GL at a time to avoid commotion ie: she could have like a maximum total of 30 visitors in a day, where they come in groups of 3 at different allotted times.
2. Prohibit taking of pictures in the house to avoid treating the house like a zoo or caricature.
3. Maintain a respectable silence when being shown around the house as a sign of respect for Freddie’s space.
4. Prohibit the fans from going upstairs as a sign of respect for Freddie’s privacy.
I honestly think a museum would have worked perfectly this way. It would have been respectful, dignified, and honouring. The best part is that Freddie’s world would have remained intact. Everything that he loved and worked hard for would have been under one roof. This would have been another beautiful way to have preserved his legacy. But we will never have that now unfortunately. That opportunity has gone down the drain because of one woman’s unbelievable levels of selfishness and arrogance.
I am beyond devastated and heartbroken that all of Freddie’s life’s work (his handwritten lyrics, personalised stage costumes etc) is no longer attached to his name, therefore cannot be used to preserve his legacy. It is sickening to think of. Freddie is not here anymore. The only way we carry on with his memory is through what he left behind. Sure, he left beautiful music that we will always have, but his items are equally a part of his legacy. They are important because they allow us to keep remembering him, and also because they meant the world to him.
If Mary just HAD to sell these items, she should have at least done the decent thing by giving ALL the proceeds to charity. But her actions are even more of a betrayal because she essentially cashed in Freddie’s entire world. I saw a quote that someone wrote which described the whole auction as a “dismemberment of Freddie’s soul”. That description is so painfully accurate. What Mary did will never be okay, and there is no justification for it whatsoever.
In conclusion:
Mary kept the house for all these years because she didn’t want anyone else to have anything. Despite how difficult it was to manage the house, she would have rather endured the hardship of maintaining that house than having anyone else access it. So she kept it out of spite for everyone else around her. She used his fortune as a power dynamic, whereby, she subdued everyone else to make them feel inferior and unimportant. Eventually, she got to tired of managing everything alone, she just decided to sell it all. She got sick and tired of hoarding and realised how bad it was for her well-being, and then decided to just let go of it all. She got tired of all the upkeep, management, and maintenance. Despite how much she loved to control and manipulate Freddie’s world, she decided to yield to not being in control anymore at that point.
TL;DR
If the auction was about Mary “moving on with her life” she would have at least:
1) Given the things to a trust, museum, or given to other people who were close in Freddie’s life ie: Kashmira, the Queen band members
2) If she just had to sell the things, she would have given MOST, if not ALL of the profit to charity. Not just a portion of it. If her actual goal was catharsis, she would not be interested in financial gain.
