Freddie Mercury's relationship with his long-term boyfriend almost never got started.
Jim Hutton met the Queen frontman in the mid-80s after an encounter in gay nightclub, Heaven.
It wasn't love at first sight though, far from it, as Hutton told Freddie to steer clear in no uncertain terms. His feelings were soon to change though.
He would eventually be with the iconic singer until his tragic death in 1991, from complications brought on by AIDS.
Jim opened up about Freddie's death three years later on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast, on which he shared how Freddie asked him out and what his initial response was.
Jim said: "We first met accidentally in a club. He offered to buy me a drink and I told him to sling his hook, basically.”
He then admitted that he didn't actually know who Freddie was at the time, saying: "He was a total, absolute stranger."
Jim continued to share how he came across Freddie again. He said: "Some months after that, I was out at a restaurant and a friend I was with just happened to mention, ‘Oh, guess who’s behind you…’ [It was] Freddie Mercury again.
“I didn’t see Freddie Mercury again for 18 months and then bumped into him in a club."
Jim said that there was nothing different about Freddie's approach this time either.
He said: "That was it. Same routine again: ‘Let me buy you a drink…’”
Their seven-year relationship began with them seeing each other "on and off" but after a year, Freddie moved him into his West Kensington mansion, One Garden Lodge.
Jim was exposed to a new world of fame but tried to not let the exposure of being Freddie's partner affect his lifestyle.
He revealed: "I still kept my job as a hairdresser. I just went on with my everyday life.”
Jim spent Freddie's final days caring for him as the singer reached the end of his life after being diagnosed with AIDS four years earlier, in 1987.
The singer didn't share his diagnosis with fans until days before his demise.
Recalling the last days of Freddie's life, Hutton said: "It was really excruciating.
“It never really sank in to me up until the last two weeks that he was dying.
“I carried on my normal work just to keep myself occupied. I didn’t want to go absolutely crazy thinking about it all the time.”
Freddie eventually died on November 24, 1991, of bronchial pneumonia, a complication due to AIDS.
He had stopped taking medication in the days prior to his death. Hutton himself was told he was HIV positive in 1990 and died in 2010 after a long battle with cancer.
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