According to Louder Sound, Queen’s drummer and backing vocalist Roger Taylor told BBC Radio in 2020 that he believed that the band would still be around if not for Freddie Mercury’s death and that he was his closest friend. “He was my closest friend and we were very, very close. We came up together and we literally lived in each other’s pockets and clothes some of the time! I do believe we would still being doing stuff together because it was a great collaboration.”

Like the rest of his bandmates, Taylor continued to make music with Mercury until his final months.

Speaking to Reader’s Digest, Taylor recalled not realizing the band’s tour for their album, A Kind of Magic, would be their last. Taylor remembered Mercury always commenting he did not wish to continue touring, while also knowing Mercury enjoyed the spotlight of concerts and cheering fans.

In an interview a week following Mercury’s death, Taylor, along with Brian May, spoke about their bandmate’s last years living with the disease. He said during the last music video they made, they were trying to support their sick friend as they and Mercury knew that death was fast approaching. He also described Mercury as a “prisoner in his own house” during the last 18 months of his life, as press and tabloids hounded the private Mercury about his life and visible deterioration. Taylor lambasted the press in the interview, calling one tabloid reporter a “poor old sick devil.”

Bassist John Deacon is the only living member of Queen who is no longer part of the lineup. While Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have carried on Queen’s name, Deacon, according to Ultimate Classic Rock, retired from music in 1997, with many close to him saying that he became despondent after Freddie Mercury’s death. May’s tribute song to Mercury was the last recording Deacon had done of any kind.

Deacon was seen as Mercury’s opposite. According to I Heart Radio, Deacon wanted to avoid the spotlight while Mercury craved it. Still, Deacon had a lot of influence in the band as the group’s chief financial advisor and, as Mercury said, “the rest of the group wouldn’t do anything unless John said it was alright.”

Mercury’s agent, Peter Freestone, said of Mercury’s and Deacon’s relationship, “Freddie took John under his wing because he was the new boy… He wanted to protect him.”

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, May and Taylor admitted they had not heard much from their old bassist, saying he is very private and retired. Taylor also said that their former bandmate was “a little fragile.” Deacon retired from music after Mercury’s passing, aside from the 1992 tribute concert to Mercury and the 1997 song. Their final video together was for Mercury’s final music video for “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” filmed a few months before Mercury’s passing and in black and white to hide the severity of the illness, Rolling Stone reports.

Like Barbara Valentin, Anita Dobson was an accomplished actor in Europe when she met Freddie Mercury. Unlike the Valentin relationship that turned sour, Dobson and Mercury remained close throughout their lives. How close? Well, as told by What’s On TV, Mercury introduced Dobson to her future husband, Mercury’s friend and the band’s guitarist Brian May.

May and Dobson have been together since 1986, as they told in a 2015 interview on the morning program, Loose Women. During this time, May was still married to his first wife, leading to tabloids and paparazzi following the couple around, according to Alternative Nation. In October 1989, Queen released, “Scandal,” written by May, which criticized the press for harassing the couple, as well as for following Mercury who was trying to hide his body’s deterioration. The song peaked at No. 25 in the United Kingdom.

Like May, Dobson remained close to Mercury in the final years and months of his life. So close that, according to actress Lucy Boynton in an interview for Grazia Magazine, she spoke often to Dobson when researching her role in the band’s 2018 biopic when she played Mercury’s longtime friend Mary Austin. “Anita spent so much time with Mary when they were traveling with the band and so it was really interesting to talk to her because she was more focused and picked up more on Mary’s idiosyncrasies and mannerisms.”

Dobson today is still married to May and has promoted the Mercury Phoenix Trust that fights HIV/AIDS worldwide.

All That’s Interesting reports that Jim Hutton first met Freddie Mercury in the mid-1980s at a London Club. Mercury offered Hutton a drink and, being in a relationship, he refused the singer’s flirtation. Eighteen months later, back at the same London Club, the pair hit it off and would become partners until Mercury’s death.

According to Vanity Fair, the couple moved in together less than a year into the relationship, though they never came out as a pair due to Mercury wishing to remain in the closet. After a few years into the relationship, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 and told Hutton he would understand if he wanted to end the relationship then and there. Hutton, as told by Irish Central, responded saying, “I love you, Freddie, I’m not going anywhere.”

Hutton cared for his partner for the remainder of his days. The pair wore wedding bands to illustrate their commitment, as gay marriage was two-plus decades away from legalization. Hutton recalled the last conversation he had with Mercury, days before his passing. The singer wanted to look at his paintings, and the couple walked downstairs to see them, Hutton staying in front of him to catch him in case he fell. After his death, Mercury left Hutton with £500,000 (nearly $1 million as of 2019), and he moved back to Ireland. Three years later, he would publish Mercury and Me, an autobiography about his relationship with his ex-partner.

Despite his relationship with Barbara Valentin, no other woman was as close to Freddie Mercury as the first love of his life, Mary Austin. According to Biography, the pair met in 1969 when Mercury was 24 and Austin was 19, and they remained close until the end of his life.

According to All That’s Interesting, the couple got engaged on Christmas Day in 1973, as Mercury and Queen were a year into their first record deal and already had a hit in the U.K. Despite his rising stardom, Mercury never left Austin’s side, even chasing after her when she tried to leave with a departing crowd of fans following one of their shows. However, Mercury and Austin never married, and, according to Austin, he would quickly change the subject anytime she tried to bring up the wedding.

Eventually, the two sat down and discussed their relationship, as Mercury admitted to himself and Austin he was gay. Even after ending the engagement, Mercury wanted Austin to remain close to him and bought her an apartment close to where he lived. His wishes came true, and Austin remained a fixture in his life.

When he was diagnosed with AIDS, Austin and Jim Hutton stood by his side. Austin remembered sitting by Mercury’s bed for hours nursing him when he was asleep. The singer would awake with a smile and say, “Oh it’s you old faithful.” After his passing, Mercury left most of his estate to Austin, as well as his ashes to scatter.