Freddie was deeply private. Few friends had been told of his AIDS diagnosis until the illness fully took grip. Even then, not all were allowed to visit him in his final weeks and days at home at One Garden Lodge, West Kensington. Elton John was one of those trusted and loved enough to be admitted, although the singer admitted this week he often stayed away because it was “too painful” to see his beloved friend suffer. When he did go, what he saw “terrified and astonished” him.
Elton was interviewed on stage by David Walliams at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo to promote his new autobiography Me and spoke emotionally of losing his friend.
He said: “I have a house in London which wasn’t too far from the house where he spent the last few years of his life.
“I didn’t go and see him often because I found it really, really painful.
“AIDs was terrifying. He was physically terrifying to look at.”
READ MORE: Freddie Mercury’s ‘final days’ by the man who held his hand at the end
“It was almost too much to bear,” Elton previously said. “It broke my heart to see this absolute light unto the world ravaged by AIDS.
“By the end, his body was covered in Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions. He was almost blind. He was too weak to even stand.
“By all rights, Freddie should have spent those final days concerned only with his own comfort. But that wasn’t who he was. He truly lived for others.”
This week Elton shared his extraordinary memory of Freddie’s courage and spirit during those visits.
Famously, Freddie loved to give gifts. His PA and friend Peter Freestone revealed he kept a Birthday Book on him at all times to write down the dates so he never missed a friend’s birthday.
Even after he was gone he planned one last delight for everyone.
Freddie died on November 24, 1991, but had spent the last weeks of his life buying Christmas presents for his nearest and dearest.
Elton broke into tears when he sherd the emotional surprise he received on Christmas Day that year: “On Christmas morning Tony King came round and gave me this pillowcase. As you read in the book my drag name is Sharon. Rod Stuart is Phillis and Freddie was Melina.
“In this beautiful pillowcase was this watercolour by Henry Scott Tuke. In the note that went with it said, ‘Dear Sharon, I saw this at auction and thought you would love it. I love you, Malena’.”
“You can imagine how much I cried.”
Holding back tears, Elton told the audience: “It was really moving. He was dying and he still thought of his friends and he bought me this.
“I still have it on its easel and I still have the pillowcase next to my bed.
“That is the kind of person he was. He was so so full of love and life.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like that.”
