Freddie Mercury taught secret daughter valuable lesson after hiding existence for 48 years

lost his privacy completely when he achieved worldwide fame - and he told his daughter of his regrets over surrendering the "precious privilege". Now she's opted to take a leaf out of his book and remain anonymous as she enjoys her life abroad, despite a new book by music biographer Lesley-Ann Jones confirming her existence.

Now a mum with a job in the medical profession, she handed over 17 intensely personal journals to the author, including a tear-jerking handwritten letter in which she described her "close and loving relationship" with the late Queen frontman. Now she has confirmed: "The life I live with my husband and our family in another country is intensely private. We want things to stay that way. We cherish our peaceful and anonymous life, and we want nothing to disturb it. Nobody needs to know who I am."

Fans will be disappointed to learn that she "will have nothing more to say" beyond what is revealed in the upcoming book, due for publication in September.

She added: "There will be no further interviews other than those that I have given to Lesley-Ann. I owe it to my father to cherish privacy as one of the most precious privileges in life.

"As he himself said, it was the thing he regretted giving away so readily. The one thing he wished that he could get back."

Many had believed Freddie to be a gay man, who at one point was living with two men at once, despite him revealing in interviews that he'd had a "normal sex life" with early love for seven years.

Now biographer Lesley-Ann Jones, who has also written books on the likes of David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, has come forward to insist she is "absolutely sure" his daughter's story is true.

She insisted: "No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three-and-a half years, never demanding anything?

"In my experience of fantasists, and I've met a few, they seek instant gratification, publicity and reward. She has never asked for money. She does not want recognition.

"Both Freddie and her stepfather left her extremely wealthy. She was not provided for through Freddie's will, but by a private, legal arrangement, so no one will find her mentioned there."