Chitra Navathe (born as Kusum Sukhtankar) was her younger sister.

Her father worked as a lipik at Army and Navy store in Mumbai.

[3] She took her primary education (up to class IV) at a school in Kumbharwada area on Bhawani Shankar Road and matriculated in 1949 from General Education Society Chabildas.

G. D. Madgulkar gave both sisters them their respective reel names, Rekha and Chitra, during the meet for 1954 Marathi film Lakhachi Goshta.

[3] Rekha Kamat died on 11 January 2022, aged 89.