His former partner, Jim Hutton, spoke about Freddie’s reaction to the betrayal in his book, Mercury and Me.

He wrote: “On May 4, Freddie was devastated by another story about him in the Sun. And so was I. His old friend, Paul Prenter had stitched him up.

“Aids Kills Freddie’s Two Lovers, it declared, and the story was run across three pages. Tony Bastin, from Brighton, and John Murphy, an airline steward, had died from the disease in 1986.

“And Prenter claimed that Freddie had called him late one night and poured out his fears about Aids…