A new biography claims that Freddie Mercury had a secret daughter.

The book, titled Love, Freddie, which explores the life of the late Queen frontman, alleges that the child was conceived accidentally during an affair with the wife of a close friend in 1976.

It goes on to claim that Mercury kept a close relationship with the child until his death in 1991, visiting her regularly and giving her 17 volumes of detailed personal journals, which she kept a secret.

The woman – who is only referred to as B throughout the book and is now aged 48 and working as a medical professional – shared the journals with the author Lesley-Ann Jones.

According to reports by the Daily Mail, the book includes B’s reasoning for sharing the journals after 30 years, with her writing: “After more than three decades of lies, speculation and distortion, it is time to let Freddie speak.

“Those who have been aware of my existence kept his greatest secret out of loyalty to Freddie,” she continues. “That I choose to reveal myself in my own midlife is my decision and mine alone. I have not, at any point, been coerced into doing this.

“He entrusted his collection of private notebooks to me, his only child and his next of kin, the written record of his private thoughts, memories and feelings about everything he had experienced.”

It is believed that only Mercury’s inner circle are aware of B’s existence.

“We had a very close and loving relationship from the moment I was born and throughout the final 15 years of his life,” she wrote in a handwritten letter. “He adored me and was devoted to me. The circumstances of my birth may seem, by most people’s standards, unusual and even outrageous.

“That should come as no surprise. It never detracted from his commitment to love and look after me. He cherished me like a treasured possession.”

Jones said she was first approached by B three years ago, and told the Daily Mail: “My instinct was to doubt everything, but I am absolutely sure she is not a fantasist.

“No one could have faked all this. Why would she have worked with me for three and a half years, never demanding anything?”

The singer allegedly started writing the diaries on June 20 1976, when he first learned about the pregnancy. They also explore his childhood in Zanzibar where he was born as Farrokh Bulsara, to Parsi-Indian parents, and his experience attending a British-style boarding school in India.

They also chronicle how the family was forced to flee Zanzibar in the 1964 revolution before settling in Middlesex, north-west London.

He wrote his final entry in his notebook on July 31 1991, while his health was deteriorating. Mercury died aged 45 of bronchial pneumonia caused by Aids.

In other Queen news, Brian May recently opened up about his fears that he would never play guitar again following suffering a stroke last year.

Meanwhile, last year Queen released a newly mixed, mastered and expanded reissue of their 1973 self-titled debut album.