Chris Rea‘s family have been left heartbroken after he became the third of his siblings to die within just three months, the Daily Mail has learned.

And in a further tragic twist the composer and singer of the ‘Driving Home for Christmas‘ anthem was said to have been overjoyed by the recent birth of a first grandchild shortly before his death on Monday aged 74.

Mr Rea’s older sister Camille Whitaker, 79, described his death as ‘tragic’ and said the sudden loss had left the family in shock coming so soon after two other deaths, of their brother and then sister.

Mrs Whitaker said the youngest of her six siblings, Nicholas, sadly passed away in a Yorkshire hospital in October from brain cancer, at the age of 66.

Then, just days after his funeral, Mrs Whitaker’s twin sister Geraldine Milward died suddenly.

Mrs Whitaker told the Daily Mail: ‘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 had been one of seven siblings, and his sister painted a picture of an idyllic childhood with her Italian father Camillo and English mother Winifred, in which Christmases were ‘wonderful’.

+7
View gallery

Mr Rea’s older sister Camille Whitaker, 79, described the death of the ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ star (pictured, on his farewell tour, in 2006) as ‘tragic’ and said the sudden loss had left the family in shock coming so soon after two other deaths, of their brother and then sister

+7
View gallery

Mrs Whitaker said the youngest of her six siblings, Nicholas (pictured), sadly passed away in a Yorkshire hospital in October from brain cancer, at the age of 66. Then, just days after his funeral, Mrs Whitaker’s twin sister Geraldine Milward died suddenly

+7
View gallery

Mrs Whitaker told the Daily Mail: ‘It is an awful pain. It is gut-wrenching what happened. The family has been quite shocked by it’. Pictured: Her late brother Nicholas