GEORGE Michael has secretly been in rehab for a year battling an addiction to lethal crack cocaine.
And today his cousin’s wife Jackie Georgiou reveals how the singer, 52, was a bewildered, drug-addled wreck when he checked into a Swiss clinic.
Jackie Georgiou, wife of George’s cousin Andros, said his family feared he was killing himself with crack, cocaine, alcohol and marijuana before he finally agreed to their pleas to undergo rehab last summer.
And she said of George, who is still being treated by the £190,000-a-month Kusnacht Practice a year later: “He was smoking crack. Before he went away he got to the point where he would be shaking, saying ‘I need it’.
“There were parties where he was taking drugs and collapsing and being picked up off the floor. Waking up in vomit, horrible things. He was so thin, so ill.
“It’s crack, it’s marijuana, it’s drink, it’s coke. It was pretty dark and things were getting darker. He was going to end up locked up or dead. I’m petrified he will die.”
Jackie said family who visited George at the clinic in Zollikon to celebrate his birthday last month were dismayed to find he was still drinking.
She said: “Everyone said he’s not the same. The spark has gone. He is not himself after his drug use.
“And I know he was still drinking after a year in rehab, which is bad.”
The former Wham! heart-throb, who has sold more than 100 million albums and singles, had not been spotted in public for more than a year before recent pictures of him emerged in Switzerland.
Until then neighbours believed he was living as a recluse in his home in Highgate, North London.
But actress Jackie revealed he has been a live-in patient at the Kusnacht Practice, one of the world’s most expensive rehab clinics, for much of the past year.
George recently moved into a property nearby and is continuing his treatment as an outpatient.
Jackie, of Los Angeles, said: “The fact he was in this institution for a year shows how serious his problem had become.
“A lot of people are suffering, including his two sisters. He’s been putting himself in a lot of danger.”
Jackie said Boy George, himself a former drug addict, had also helped persuade his friend George to seek help.
She added: “I spoke to Boy George and we had a long chat about George. He said ‘I’ve tried knocking on his door, tried to help him. He needs to find himself.’ It may have had an impact.”
Jackie, 45, said George’s downward spiral began with alcohol and marijuana. He then moved on to ecstasy and harder drugs.
She said: “They were fun and crazy times to start with.
“He loved to drink expensive wine and plenty of it. We would go to a posh restaurant and he would start singing Michael Jackson and Take That numbers at the dinner table.
“We’d be driving around the streets of London drinking Cristal champagne and rolling into restaurants and not being able to order food because we were all so drunk.
“On special occasions he’d take ecstasy and start break dancing. At first he hated cocaine. Then he got deeper and deeper into the harder stuff. It was a gradual demise.”
George’s problems with drugs have been well-documented.
In June 2007 he got community service after admitting driving with a cocktail of drugs in his system.
He had been found slumped at the wheel of his Mercedes in London. Three months later he told a BBC interviewer he had a heavy marijuana habit and added: “Do I wish I could use it less? Sure, but is it a problem in my life? No.”
In September the following year George was caught with crack cocaine at toilets in Hampstead Heath a mile from his Highgate home. He accepted a caution.
In December 2009 he told a newspaper he had once smoked 25 cannabis spliffs a day but had cut down to seven or eight.
In July 2010 he crashed his car into a shop front in Hampstead.
He served four weeks in jail after admitting driving under the influence of drugs.
Jackie told how she believes an incident in May 2013 in which George needed hospital treatment after tumbling out of his Range Rover as it sped along the M1 at 70mph also happened because of his drug intake.
She said: “I think he was off his nut and threw himself out of the car. Over the years he’s fallen asleep at the wheel twice, gone to jail, almost died of pneumonia and thrown himself out of a car. People had to intervene before he died.”
Jackie’s husband Andros is a second cousin to George — and the pair grew up as the closest of friends. They set up a record company and George was best man at Jackie and Andros’s Las Vegas wedding in 1991.
His Brazilian lover Anselmo Feleppa, who died of Aids in 1993, was their maid of honour. George is godfather to two of their sons and was present at the birth of one.
Jackie said: “When we got married we all flew to Vegas and George put $10,000 in cash in each of our bags.”
Jackie believes Anselmo’s death, along with George’s mum Lesley dying of cancer in 1997, were the triggers that sent his life spiralling out of control.
She said: “He was in so much pain after Anselmo died. And then when his mum died, who was everything to him, it was a lot for him to live with.”
Since 2011, George has been dating Lebanese hairdresser Fadi Fawaz, 41. Jackie said: “I was hoping he would be the salvation.”
Now she is praying George can get his life back on track and return to performing.
She said: “I’d love to see him back on stage doing what he did best.
“That’s when he was happiest. That’s why it’s so sad to see his demise. He needs to find something to live for again.”
Geri in bed with Goss
JACKIE told how she found Geri Halliwell in bed with George’s then-lover Kenny Goss.
She said they were all staying at the star’s South of France home. Jackie said: “I found Kenny on top of Geri Halliwell in St Tropez.
“She had gone to stay in their house after the Spice Girls split.”
George was smitten with Geri and Robbie Williams. She said: “George was really affected by Geri and I would mock him for being star-struck by a Spice Girl.
“And he fancied Robbie Williams but was never sure if he was gay or not so never tried it on.”
Jackie said that despite being gay George was irresistibly drawn to beautiful women.
She added: “He wouldn’t shag them but wanted to be around them. Especially Princess Diana. He would turn into a stuttering mess around her.”
Jackie said George was also a fan of the Gallagher brothers from Oasis.
She added: “He said Liam needed to evolve a bit but thought Noel was great.”
Hooked on sordid sex
GEORGE’S obsession with risky sex opened the door to more dangerous drugs, Jackie believes.
She told how the singer would boast about his love of sex with strange men in public places and refused to stop despite a series of arrests.
She said: “He’s a very addictive person. First it was the sex stuff. He was always sneaking off. It got riskier and riskier.
“He said to me ‘You don’t understand — it’s the thrill of it. Nobody knows who I am, this is why I do it. There’s the thrill of getting caught, going that little extra step.’
“It was not just in bathrooms. It was in bushes, parks, trees. In the end there were rent boys involved and that’s when he got heavily into the drug use.”
In April 1998 George was arrested for “engaging in a lewd act” with an undercover policeman in a Los Angeles public toilet.
He was fined $810 and sentenced to community service. After his arrest he began speaking publicly about his sexuality and his relationships with men.