Now, Austin lives a private life in Garden Lodge, the mansion she inherited from Mercury when he died at the age of 45 in 1991. Though Austin once regularly greeted mourners and interacted with fans , she's since stopped. In 2017, Austin angered Mercury's fans when she repainted the shrine to Mercury had gradually built up on the gated walls outside the Kensington mansion. But the home itself is a shrine to Mercury. Austin hasn't changed the decor of Mercury's dream home much at all. Because for Austin, Mercury's death was tremendous. "I lost somebody who I thought was my eternal love. When he died I felt we'd had a marriage. We'd lived our vows. We'd done it for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. You could never have let go of Freddie unless he died — and even then it was difficult," she told OK