{"id":729408,"date":"2026-08-06T14:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/729408\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:06:14","slug":"uk-singer-of-legendary-80s-christmas-tune-left-12m-to-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/729408\/","title":{"rendered":"UK singer of legendary 80s Christmas tune left \u00a312m to wife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Chris Rea, the artist behind &#8216;Driving Home for Christmas&#8217;, bequeathed \u00a312 million in his will to his partner after his death last year, The Sun has reported.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Middlesbrough-born musician died in December, aged 74, following an illness.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/news\/26437228.harper-beckham-15-refusing-give-beauty-brand-setback\/?ref=ed_recent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Harper Beckham, 15, refusing to give up after beauty brand setback<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Previous to that he had endured a number of health problems, including once collapsing on stage in Oxford.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Known for his gravelly voice and latterly for his slide guitar playing, he was nominated for a slew of top awards, including Brit Awards, at the height of his success and sold millions of records.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"Chris Rea\"\/>Chris Rea (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  After battling health troubles in 2016 when he suffered a stroke, the singer recovered to launch a new album, Road Songs For Lovers, the following year.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But during a live show at Oxford&#8217;s New Theatre on George Street back in 2017, he collapsed.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  I wasn\u2019t frightened of dying,\u201d he once said in an interview.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/news\/26438665.70s-comedy-legend-call-jeremy-clarkson-enter-politics\/?ref=ed_recent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">70s comedy legend in call for Jeremy Clarkson to enter politics<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt did look like the end, but what got me through was the thought of leaving a record that my two teenage daughters could say, \u2018That\u2019s what Papa did \u2013 not the pop stuff, but the blues music. That\u2019s what he was about&#8217;.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Now, court records seen by The Sun, show that Mr Rea left \u00a314,435,894 to his wife Joan, reduced to \u00a312,063,178 after taxes, debts and costs.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The grant was issued by the High Court earlier this week, with the will having been signed only a few months before the singer died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Rea, the artist behind &#8216;Driving Home for Christmas&#8217;, bequeathed \u00a312 million in his will to his partner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-729408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729408","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=729408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}