Freddie Mercury’s first girlfriend realised he was gay during a visit to an art exhibition.
Rose Pearson – who now goes by the name of Rose Rose – has recalled the late music icon becoming “enamoured” with photographs of men wrestling in the nude at the exhibition.
She told the Radio Times: “We had been to the V&A and seen Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs of men wrestling in the nude.
“I could see he was enamoured in a way that went beyond art appreciation. Then we went to see Ken Russell’s ‘Women in Love’ and he was dumbfounded by the wrestling scene.
“He wanted to stay in the cinema and see the whole thing again. My blood ran cold, not because it was a bad film but because of the implications. That was the tipping point.”
Rose decided to end their romance after they spent two weeks together in Russia.
The artist decided to “take matters into [her] own hands” and call time on their relationship, rather than allowing it to drag on.
Rose never spoke to the singer – who died of bronchial pneumonia resulting from Aids in 1991 – ever again and she subsequently made a conscious effort to avoid watching or reading about the Queen star.
Meanwhile, Roger Taylor revealed earlier this year that he still has his Freddie Mercury statue in his garden.
The Queen drummer claimed the statue of the band’s former frontman after it was removed from outside the Dominion Theatre in London, where the Queen musical ‘We Will Rock You’ was previously staged.
Asked if it’s still in his possession, Roger replied: “Yes, absolutely. I said, ‘Why don’t they just put it on a lorry and we’ll put it in the garden.'”
