{"id":333529,"date":"2025-12-24T16:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/333529\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T16:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:15:12","slug":"chris-rea-third-sibling-to-die-within-three-months-as-older-sister-recalls-tragic-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/333529\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Rea third sibling to die within three months as older sister recalls ‘tragic’ losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rea’s older sister Camille Whitaker, 79, said the youngest of her six siblings, Nicholas, passed away in October and her twin died suddenly just days after the funeral<\/p>\n

Tannur Anders and Bradley Jolly Overnight News Editor<\/p>\n

07:15, 24 Dec 2025Updated 07:16, 24 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"UKUK singer Chris Rea died on December 22 at the age of 74(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

English singer-songwriter Chris Rea, one of seven children, was the third of his siblings to pass away within three months, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n

The musician’s<\/a> older sister Camille Whitaker, 79, said the youngest of her six siblings, Nicholas, passed away at 66-years-old in a Yorkshire hospital in October from brain cancer<\/a>. Just days after his funeral, Camille’s twin sister Geraldine Milward died suddenly.<\/p>\n

Rea, a Teesside<\/a>, local passed away on Monday, December 22 following a short health battle at 74 years old.<\/p>\n

“It is an awful pain. It is gut-wrenching what happened. The family has been quite shocked by it. It is tragic. We can’t sort of get around it,” Whitaker said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Whitaker told the Daily Mail that Rea had always kept very close to his family. She said that he had recently become a grandfather to a boy.<\/p>\n

Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had his pancreas removed in 2001. He suffered a stroke in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Rea in concert at the Birmingham NEC. 21st January 1993.(Image: Mirrorpix)<\/p>\n

“Christopher had terrible, terrible health and has been unwell for sometime before he died,” Whitaker said.<\/p>\n

Rea rose to fame in the late 1970s and 1980 with hits like Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Let’s Dance and The Road To Hell. He was best known for the festive hit Driving Home For Christmas, which features in M&S Food Christmas advert this year.<\/p>\n

The song , which was released as a B-side to Hello Friend, encapsulates the anticipation of returning home for Christmas. It was written at a turbulent time in his life, when he was banned from driving and “on the dole”.<\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve in 1978 Rea’s wife, Joan, drove 250 miles on the M1 to pick him up in their Mini after he was dropped from his record label and unable to get home to Middlesbrough<\/a> from London.<\/p>\n

Whitaker last spoke to her brother on the phone six days before he passed away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rea’s older sister Camille Whitaker, 79, said the youngest of her six siblings, Nicholas, passed away in October…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,66274,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-333529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-middlesbrough","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}