Oligneisti let’s say we go with your logic about the house, why then did he leave Jim an equal amount of money as his personal assistant and his cook? He could have left him more as he did with Terry Giddings (left him a different amount - less). I think Freddie made it clear, he was his last love, a lasting relationship maybe due to the fact that he wasn’t going to go out on the pull anymore. I think he did love him very much but under no circumstances the love of his life.
Invisible Woman I think his will reflects exactly his feelings. He was a shrewd business man and even though he didn’t write the legal lingo, he wrote everything else to his exact wishes. You can’t just imply the lawyers decided the percentages or details themselves !
Also, he could have left everything to his parents or sister and nephews, they were the obvious choice. Which leads us to believe that Mary was the love of his life. And he wasn’t with her because he was gay. It became a platonic love, a most previous kind of friendship. I believe she was his soulmate. The person he trusted the most.
[QUOTE] [b]Tartlet wrote:[/b]
Oligneisti let’s say we go with your logic about the house, why then did he leave Jim an equal amount of money as his personal assistant and his cook? He could have left him more as he did with Terry Giddings (left him a different amount - less). I think Freddie made it clear, he was his last love, a lasting relationship maybe due to the fact that he wasn’t going to go out on the pull anymore. I think he did love him very much but under no circumstances the love of his life.[/QUOTE]
Joe and Phoebe weren't just his workers - they were like a family to him
@Tartlet But you didn't answer my question: if his will never existed in that form, which thing would be proof that Mary was "love of his life"?
His family probably approved of such a will. It was appropriate for them as well as the band's managers that he had a female widow and not a male widow. Those were other times. Today is a little different.
Love between lovers doesn't just mean sex. There is also a psychic connection and special feelings. He felt friendly love for her and it's really something different.
He wanted Jim by his side as a partner until the very end and no matter they stop having sex. In hearts they still were lovers. If Freddie didn't care about Jim and if he didn't love him they would be broke up for sure. But they really loved each other. I don't understand why some want to diminish that love and show it as meaningless.
@Invisible Woman I couldn't agree more with everything you said
Mariah Carey yeah they were like family to him but surely if he was able to classify Terry Giddings as less close to him than them, a ‘husband’ as Jim was perceived would have had to have been differentiated also, if only for sentimental reasons.
Invisible Woman Freddie himself has responded to your question in the interviews he did and the things he said about nobody being able to come close to Mary. And also in his song ‘love of my life’ of which he left the rights to, to her.
Also, I don’t believe for a minute that Freddie would conform to what deemed appropriate in his will to please his family and everybody. Have you seen the way he lived his life? Short of shouting from the rooftops ‘I’m gay’, which was nobody’s business anyway then and now, he lived his life unapologetically, conforming to no expectations socially and musically. And if he wanted to image manage his will as you suggest, then he would have left everything to his parents and sister. No, he was sending a strong message across. Nobody is trying to diminish his love for Jim and everything Jim did for him at the end, but let’s not be under illusions here that he was the love of his life. He was a meaningful love but came nowhere near Mary. And I am not on her side for the sake of it, just stating the facts. I would support anybody he had chosen for that honour and that clearly was her.
@oligneisti
>>Freddie knew Jim was HIV+ and likely thought he wouldn't have many years left.
This is one of the persistent myths about HIV on queenzone. If I had a dollar or a pound for every time someone said this. . .
It’s true for an AIDS diagnosis in 1991, but not for HIV.
In 1987 it was still believed that many people with HIV would never get sick. Now we’re talking about 1991 when Freddie wrote his will. As time went on the truth more and more was realized. Certainly in 1991 it was known that there were people who had been HIV positive since 1978 who were still not sick. (1978 tests were on stored serum samples from the Hepatitis B studies conducted in the US.) In addition to this Freddie’s doctor Graeme Moyle always knows what’s going on, so he would have known about the research being done at Merck on protease inhibitors which eventually made HIV a treatable disease and which Jim took. The person who initiated this research gave a talk or series of talks in the UK but sadly took the Lockerbie flight home. By 1991 hope for the near future was very reasonable. That’s partly what made all the deaths in the early 90s so horrible.
Full blown AIDS as they used to call it was a different story. Once you got that diagnosis, your days were numbered. But HIV infection? You could walk around with that for years or even decades and not know it.
Present tense for Dr. Moyle because it’s still true.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to gauge Freddie’s love for Jim vs. Mary from his will. Didn’t Jim go to live in the house in Ireland that Freddie gave him? Perhaps that is where he wanted to live and not Garden Lodge anyway.
Galileo 1564 Thanks for the clarification of that, even I learnt something new from it and I’ve skimmed through the book ‘Somebody to love’. I think you’ve summarized it better !
I take issue with, Jim and Phoebe saying that Mary kicked them out and acted so coldly after Freddie’s unfortunate demise. And the claim was that Freddie had wanted for them to stay on. That just flabbergasts me and hence me saying that if he had wanted that, he would have put it in the will. He knew exactly what he was doing and he never wanted three grown men who he had given houses to already, to stay in with Mary and her babies in Garden Lodge.
Unfortunately also while I want to believe that Jim was finally the great gay love if his life, I do think the will is a bit telling, not to say he didn’t love him at all.
I'm gonna say this again - money doesn't equal love
Mariah Carey and I’ll repeat, maybe money isn’t but Garden Lodge was his definition of love along with his cats.
[QUOTE] [b]Tartlet wrote:[/b]
Mariah Carey and I’ll repeat, maybe money isn’t but Garden Lodge was his definition of love along with his cats.[/QUOTE]
Garden Lodge is just a house and he gave that house a person who had kids and a family, also who knew how to take care of financial things and stuff. It's that simple.
Mariah Carey Garden Lodge was never just a house, it and the cats were his babies. And if he wanted to just give them to somebody it would have been huis parents and sister.
Btw I really like Mariah Carey the singer ;)
I agree that money doesn't equal love or buy happiness. Freddie seemed like he really enjoyed money, LOTS of it and spent it on whatever he wanted. Garden Lodge and his cats were his love and very dear to him.
In reality, if a person were to create a trust, who would they give their hard earned money and possessions to? Someone they love or someone they don't love? Most people would give it to someone they love. Doesn't that just make sense?
Hello Delilah Couldn’t have said it better myself !
