Was Jermaine Jackson in Love With Whitney Houston?
Whitney Houston once stirred a romantic interest in Jermaine Jackson while he was married to Hazel Gordy, according to media reports, but it was unclear if the former "Jackson 5" star ever acted on those feelings.
Jackson, 56, was reportedly interested in Houston, 48, who died on Feb. 11, according to The Sun. However, Jackson was married to the daughter of Motown record label founder Berry Gordy at the time.
In Jackson's book published last year, You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through A Brother's Eyes, he spoke about his romantic feelings for Houston, which emerged during the time the two spent coloborating in the studio in the 80s.
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Jackson recalled his younger brother Michael asking if he was in love with Houston.
"I can't be in love," Jermaine told Michael. "I'm married."
Still, Jermaine admitted that he was lying to himself and his brother.
"That was a deliberate lie," Jermaine wrote.
According to Jackson, after being encouraged by Michael to do "the right thing," he told Houston to wait for him so that they could see one another in the future.
"Whitney and I spoke about our shared predicament. And as much as I wanted to lose myself in all these feelings, I told her to wait," Jackson stated in the book. "I spoke of 'one day' and 'maybe.' Ultimately, we had to go our separate ways and it killed us both."
Jackson, who had three children with Gordy, did not claim in You Are Not Alone to have had a physical relationship with Houston. Still, Houston released her rendition of "Saving All My Love For You," which spoke about a woman engaging in an affair.
Jackson described the feeling he had while watching the music video for the song.
"In 1985, I received a phone call from someone close to Whitney, telling me that she was releasing her new single 'Saving All My Love For You.' Like Michael, she expressed herself through song," Jackson wrote. "And when I watched the official music video, I soon realized that it was also autobiographical with its parallels -- and coded message -- to what we had recently shared in the studio together."
Although the two separated in the 1980s, they reportedly remained friends throughout the years. When Jackson's brother, Michael, died in 2009 Houston was on hand to comfort her friend, The Sun reported.
Still, Jackson did not attend Houston's funeral in New Jersey on Feb. 18. An unidentified friend told The Sun that he was too distraught to make an appearance.
"No one understood the scale of his grief because they didn't know what they shared," the source said.
Since Houston's death, various negative reports have circulated about her life. Shirley Caesar, Houston's godmother, reprimanded those focusing on the negative reports concerning the late singer.
"Let me just say this, everybody including all of you are facing some kind of problem. The only difference between you all and Whitney is that Whitney was a star," Caesar said on the Nancy Grace show, shortly before the audio was cut off. "We are beating up on that because now she's no longer with us. You've got to keep in mind that there's a young girl who is motherless. There is a mother who is sick (with) no daughter."
