The Driving Home For Christmas singer passed away this week after his younger brother Nicholas died in October from brain cancer and sister Geraldine died suddenly days after Nicholas’s funeral
Bradley Jolly Overnight News Editor
09:00, 24 Dec 2025
Chris Rea and daughter Josephine in London in 2013. (Image: Getty Images)
The family of Chris Rea is grappling with the devastating loss of three siblings within a mere three-month span, it has been revealed.
The singer’s kin have voiced their “awful pain” following the recent passing of the star, marking the third family tragedy in quick succession. Chris’ elder sister, Camille Whitaker, 79, shared that her youngest brother, Nicholas, succumbed to brain cancer at a Yorkshire hospital in October, aged just 66.
Tragically, mere days after his funeral, Geraldine Milward, Camille’s twin, also passed away unexpectedly.
This week, Middlesbrough-born Chris also departed this life, shortly after welcoming his first grandchild into the world. A heartbroken Camille expressed last night: “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.”
Chris Rea in 2005. (Image: Redferns)
Chris Rea in London in 2015. (Image: Future via Getty Images)
Chris, famed for his festive hit Driving Home For Christmas, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a pancreas removal operation in 2001. He then suffered a stroke in 2016, reports the Mirror.
Despite these health challenges, Chris, one of seven siblings, had the joy of celebrating the birth of a grandson recently. The musician, who penned Driving Home For Christmas inspired by a journey from London to Middlesbrough during the festive season in 1978, reportedly maintained close ties with his family throughout his life.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Camille went on: “He lived with his wife and children in Buckinghamshire. He always kept very close to his family. He has two daughters and he recently became a grandfather, to a boy, he was very, very pleased. That was wonderful. His eldest, Josephine, inspired one of his songs.
“And Julia, his second daughter, she is the lady who got married and had a baby. Christopher had terrible, terrible health and has been unwell for sometime before he died.”
The father was indeed diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent pancreas removal in 2001, before suffering a stroke in 2016. These health struggles followed Chris’s rise to stardom in the late 1970s and 1980s with chart-toppers including Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Let’s Dance and The Road To Hell.
Driving Home For Christmas was released in 1988, a decade after Chris conceived the concept, but initially peaked at just number 53 in the charts, comprehensively outdone by Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine which claimed the Christmas number one spot.
However, the track has experienced a remarkable revival in subsequent decades and, partly due to streaming platforms, has reappeared in the UK Singles Chart annually since 2007.
Camille last chatted with her brother by telephone six days prior to his passing. Describing the musician as “a very shy and quiet man,” Camille revealed that she, Chris and their other siblings experienced a modest upbringing in Middlesbrough.
Their father, who hailed from Italy before relocating to Britain, was employed at a local ice cream factory and café chain. Chris harboured ambitions of pursuing journalism but discovered his true passion lay in music, beginning to release tracks professionally by the late 1970s.
Driving Home for Christmas was swiftly succeeded by The Road to Hell, which also drew inspiration from Chris’ exasperation with motorway congestion during peak hours. Critics lauded it “for being irredeemably depressing”.
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