Jermaine Jackson had a torrid affair with Whitney Houston and carried a torch for her until the day she died, according to a report published yesterday.
The attraction had been instant between the pair after the married Jermaine was brought in to produce Houston and perform duets with her in the early 1980s, and they soon began a secret, yearlong fling, The Sun newspaper in London said.
“In those early days . . . he was smuggled into her hotel rooms, they worked extra late in the studio, and she even had a code name for him. She referred to him as ‘Ji,’ ” one pal said.
“The reason it ended was because Jermaine wouldn’t leave his wife — and Whitney was angry.”
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She channeled that anger into her 1985 recording of the hit song “Saving All My Love For You” — about a woman, making sweet music with a married man — a year after their relationship fizzled.
She even hired a Jackson look-alike for the song’s video, according to the newspaper.
During the affair, Houston, then single and 22, and Jackson — eight years her senior and married to Hazel Gordy, daughter of Motown founder Berry Gordy — would double-date with Jermaine’s brother, Jackie, and Jackie’s then-girlfriend Paula Abdul, a source told The Post.
But other than that, the pair kept the relationship quiet, pals said. Jermaine’s brother Michael Jackson, was among the few to know about it — and disapproved of the romance, The Sun said.
Jermaine, who once called Houston “intoxicating,” always loved her, a source said.
One of Jermaine’s pals recalled yesterday to The Post how concerned his friend was in 2001 when Houston performed during a TV special marking Michael’s 30 years as a solo entertainer.
“He was alarmed about how awful Whitney sounded and looked. He asked me whether I thought it a good idea to reach out to her,” the friend said.
“He spoke for nearly a month of leaving [then-wife] Alejandra [Genevieve Oaziaza] and getting back with Whitney because he said he knew she’d leave [then-husband] Bobby Brown for him.
“Of course, he didn’t contact her, and that was the end of that. But he always carried a torch for her.”
Jermaine Jackson was reportedly so shattered by Houston’s sudden death in a Beverly Hills hotel room last month that he couldn’t bring himself to attend her funeral.
“The right words fail me to sum up the sense of loss following the passing of Whitney . . . A wonderful woman, a true heart, and an immense artist,” Jackson tweeted two days after Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the Grammys.