12million

DRIVING Home For Christmas singer Chris Rea left a £12million final gift to his family, documents show.

The hitmaker, who died three days before Christmas last year aged 74, passed the sum into a trust for his wife Joan.

Court records seen by The Sun show Rea left £14,435,894, reduced to £12,063,178 after taxes, debts and costs were removed.

A grant was issued by the High Court earlier this week.

He had signed his final will in October 2025, just two months before his death.

In the 19-page document, Rea asked to be cremated.

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Joan will also collect all of her husband’s personal belongings and future royalties from her husband’s hits being played on the radio.

Rea was born in Middlesbrough in 1951 to an Italian father and Irish mother.

He joined local band Magdalene in 1973 before launching his solo career by performing in local bars and clubs.

His 1978 debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, spawned the US hit Fool (If You Think It’s Over), which landed him a £15,000 payday and a Grammy nomination for best new artist.

Rea produced 25 studio albums in a lengthy career, scoring two UK Number Ones – The Road to Hell in 1989 and follow-up album Auberge in 1991.

But it was his festive track, 1978’s Driving Home for Christmas, that made him a household name.

Rea had been dumped by his manager and banned from driving when his then-girlfriend Joan was forced to drive down to London in a Mini to drive him back up north.

He later recalled coming up with the melody and lyrics during the lengthy trip home.

The track only reached Number 53 when originally released in 1986, but has since become a staple of the festive season.

It has returned to the UK Singles Chart every year since 2007 and peaked at Number 10 in 2021.

Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at just 33 and went through nine operations in a decades-long health battle, spending more than 32 weeks in hospital.

He lost his pancreas, gallbladder and part of his liver to surgeries, and later developed type 1 diabetes.

At one stage, the star was taking 34 pills a day.

He suffered a stroke in 2016, prompting him to give up cigarettes, before collapsing on stage in Oxford the following year.

Chris said of his health battles: “The original illness hit me hard. I almost had a nervous breakdown with the shock of it. That was the Mount Everest to climb.

“When they said it was pancreatic cancer, I could not believe it. It seemed that if your DNA says you are going to have cancer, then you can.

“They did not think I would recover from the first operation, but I was determined to do so for my wife and the girls.”

The star continued performing despite his illnesses, and made his final TV appearance in a 2020 Christmas special of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, filmed in his home city of Middlesbrough.

Chris met wife Joan when they were both teenagers growing up in Teesside and they stayed married for 57 years.

They had two daughters, Josephine, born in 1983, and Julia, born in 1989.

Comic Mortimer and TV host Jools Holland led tributes to Chris after his death last year.

Bob, recorded a cover of Rea’s Let’s Dance with Middlesbrough FC in 1997, wrote: “A lovely brilliant funny giant of a bloke… RIP Chris.”

His record label, BMG, said: “Over a remarkable career spanning more than four decades, Chris Rea created an extraordinary and deeply human body of work, defined by emotional honesty, restraint, and craft.”

Sound engineer Stuart Epps, who worked with the singer for decades, remembered him as “an amazing guy and an amazing musician”.

And Squeeze pianist Holland said: “Sad we’ve lost dear Chris Rea. A brilliant musician and the kindest of men.”

THERE’S no better way to keep the kids cool in the heatwave than splashing in the pool – and there is a huge new £12million waterpark you can now go to in the UK.

The new water attraction, Lost Lagoon, has opened at Haven Kent Coast holiday park just in time for the summer holidays, and I was one of the first to visit.

Taking a turn on outdoor flume Atlantis Falls, it should come with a health warning – its so addictively fun that you won’t want to leave it.

What I loved about the water ride is that it’s a cross between the outdoor rapids you find at other pools, which are usually set into the ground and can be a bit meandering over a gentle gradient, and a flume with a steeper slope.

I was certainly taken by surprise, especially when I was unexpectedly bumped up into the air at speed right at the end…

As well as Atlantis Falls, the pool upgrade has an indoor splash pad with slides, sprays and tipping buckets.

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My boys absolutely loved racing each other down the side-by-side slides at one end of the aqua- play frame called Coral Play, while the twisty tunnel water chutes at the other end of the splash pad also got the thumbs up.

Even my teen found it fun, so it’s clearly been designed for different ages to splash about together.

For younger guests it has a shallow baby pool as you enter the waterpark, which is perfect for little ones heading for their first swim.

There’s also Tiddlers Tide Pool, with its own little slide, water table and play area aimed at toddlers.

And the new indoor swimming Aqua Haven has been created by extending the building over the old outdoor pool.

The sprays coming from the play frame were perfect for cooling down menopausal mums during the heatwave as well…

For my family of five, heading to the pool is a non-negotiable on any holiday, so there’s a couple of things you need to know before visiting.

The pool isn’t currently opening on changeover days during term time, which is usually on Mondays and Fridays (although it will be open every day in peak periods).

You can book up to 14 hour-long swim sessions per break on the MyHaven app, four weeks before your holiday starts.

You’ll want to do this in plenty of time, as most of the hour-long slots were full to capacity well before we arrived.

And you need to be 1.2 metres tall and a strong swimmer to go on the outdoor rapids, even if you have an adult in tow.

But it’s all worth it if you want to keep the whole family entertained.

Don’t worry if you don’t end up booking into the waterpark however, as there is loads to do at the holiday park outside of this.

It’s host to a huge adventure village, with everything from climbing walls and bungee trampolines to high ropes and kart hire.

There’s the onsite Wetherspoons, massive indoor arcade linking the pool, the two drinking holes, and the activity hub.

One thing that families will love this summer is that Haven is giving each child a £7.50 activity credit as part of the Great British Summer of Savings, the government’s VAT cut on kids’ activities.

We used ours towards booking some extra fun at the pool, including a go on the aqua jets for one child and a turn on the aqua inflatable for another.

You need to spend all of your activity credit in one go as you will lose the balance otherwise.

But book your stay far enough in advance, and you can snap up a four-night break for four people from just £49, which is equal to just £3.07 per person, per night.

What more could you want?