Rekha's mother was also an actress. She is the daughter of South actress Pushpavalli who fell in love with a twice-married South cinema superstar Gemini Ganesan, whom she did not marry but became the mother of his two daughters.
Rekha was rumoured to have been married to actor Vinod Mehra in 1973, but in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal she denied being married to Mehra referring to him as a "well-wisher".
Gemini Ganesan was married four times with almost all his marriages being concurrent. He also had children outside wedlock, something his daughter resented him for.