Reba McEntire realized pretty early on that she’d found her happy place in now-fiancé Rex Linn.
It wasn’t quite love at first sight, as the country music legend has actually known the actor, 68, since 1991, when they filmed the TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.
But when Reba guest starred on his show Young Sheldon in 2020 following the end of her 26-year second marriage to steel guitar player-turned-manager Narvel Blackstock, “It was just like a magnet,” she reflected to E! News’ Francesca Amiker last year.
Due to COVID-era restrictions, “We didn’t get to see each other from January ‘til June 16,” the 70-year-old continued, “but we created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone that we wouldn’t have gotten if we’d have been together all of that time.”
Score one for social distancing. Though The Voice coach noted, “We’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since June 16 of 2020,” she’s grateful they had the chance to build a love worth writing about from afar.
People tend to “gravitate to the physical so quickly,” she surmised. And they were gifted the opportunity to grow as friends first.
“You know the ins and outs of their personality and their faults,” the “I’m a Survivor” singer explained. “You love them for the way they are, instead of it being a total attraction and sizing them up because of appearance.”
And with Rex, she can’t even get the blues.
As she told E!, “He makes me laugh.” He also had her reconsidering her future. Twice divorced following splits from steer wrestling champion and rancher Charlie Battles and Narvel (dad to her son Shelby Blackstock, plus Chassidy, Shawna and the late Brandon Blackstock), he had her believing the third time would be the charm.
“I’m truly committed to Rex,” she explained to E!. “So if that’s something he feels totally strong about, that’s fine with me. He’s never been married before. So if he wants to experience that, I’m OK with that.”
Really OK with it considering the sparkly new left-hand accessory she was flashing at the Emmys 2025.
With their NBC sitcom Happy’s Place already renewed for a second season, they’ve reupped their love story indefinitely. E! has learned they got engaged a few months ago.
And after LiveFrom E!: 2025 Emmys correspondent Zuri Hall referred to Rex as her fiancé, Reba revealed they’d already settled into their happy wife, happy life era, regardless of marital status.
“We’re having a blast on Happy’s Place,” she shared, “and so glad to be here tonight.”
Really, she’s thrillled to be anywhere by Rex’s side.
They’re yearly Valentine’s Day tradition sees them hit up a nearby Sonic (perhaps the inspiration for their nicknames Sugar Tot and Tater Tot) while Christmas means popcorn and candy.
“We have our Christmas on Christmas Eve and he likes to go see movies,” Reba explained to E! News last December, “so we’ll do that first thing in the morning before the crowds hit the theaters, Then we’ll come back and we’ll have our meals.”
Joked Reba, “You noticed I said ‘meals,’ because we’ll have lunch and supper and probably a midnight snack. That will be our tradition.”
After all, breaking bread is part of what pulled them together back in 2020.
“Rex texted me and said, ‘You’re coming to LA? Let’s have dinner,'” Reba recalled to Today in 2023. While she didn’t know why he requested the date, she continued, “I wanted to get in to see Rex so bad I could hardly stand it. We were inseparable.”
Little has changed with the two continuing to mix business and pleasure.
“Rex and I met on The Gambler movie in ’91, so we’re used to working together and also being together as partners and buddies and lovers,” Reba explained to E!. “It just works out.”
Of course, she added, “You better like ’em—all the time. It’s 24/7, so I do like him a lot.“
As the musician prepares to re-enter her bridal era, look back on all the high notes the she’s hit over the years.
1991
Reba McEntire first met her special somebody Rex Linn on the set of KennyRogers‘ 1991 movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, in which she played lead Burgundy Jones and he made a cameo.
“He gets a big kick out of it,” the country music star recalled on Today in April 2023. “He says his part was riding into a saloon on a 4-year-old colt and going, ‘Yeehaw!’ and riding out.”
Over the years, the two stayed in contact as friends. However, Reba was already married to Narvel Blackstock—becoming stepmom to his kids Shawna, Chassidy and Brandon Blackstock after tying the knot in 1989 and welcoming son ShelbyBlackstock the following year—and it would be decades before she and Rex struck up a romance.
January 2020
Four years after Reba and Narvel divorced near the end of 2015, she crossed paths with Rex again. This time, it was on Young Sheldon, where she made a guest appearance and he had a recurring role.
“Rex texted me and said, ‘You going to be in town?'” Reba recalled on The Jennifer Hudson Show in July 2025. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, let’s go to dinner.'”
After enjoying a meal with friends, the actress continued, they headed to a wine bar, where Reba ordered some tater tots and Rex determined, “That’s your nickname from here on out.”
Luckily for fans of the Tots (she’s “Tater Tot” and he’s “Sugar Tot”), there’s a photo from that special night.
“Had a fantastic dinner with this Oklahoma girl,” Rex wrote on Instagram in January 2020. “Tater Tots and Ketchup included.”
January 2020 – June 2020
With their romance beginning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reba and Rex were forced to date long-distance. However, this enabled them to connect on a deeper level.
“Because of the pandemic, we didn’t get to see each other from January to June 16, but we created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone that we wouldn’t have gotten if we had been together all that time,” the singer explained to E! News in April 2024. “So it was very special, and it was a great way of finding out about each other without ever touching. We’ve been pretty much inseparable since June 16 of 2020. It was a wonderful way to get to know each other better.”
October 2020
Reba and Rex went public with their relationship that fall.
“It’s good to have a person to talk to, laugh with, get into subjects about what’s going on, discussions about our past, our family, funny stories, him being an actor, me being an actress,” the Grammy winner said while confirming their romance on an October 2020 episode of her podcast Living & Learning. “He’s very into my music. I’m very into his career. It’s just great getting to talk to somebody who I find very interesting, very funny, very smart and is interested in me, too.”
That same month, Reba and Rex gave fans glimpses into their life together, posting photos of them from their time in Montana.
November 2020
Soon afterwards, the “I’m a Survivor” artist and the CSI: Miami actor made their red carpet debut as a couple at the 2020 CMA Awards, which she hosted.
October 2021
Fans got more insight into Reba and Rex’s romance when he was a guest on her podcast the following year.
During their discussion, they looked back at how they’ve leaned on each other during tough times, which include the March 2020 death of Reba’s mother Jacqueline McEntire after her battle with cancer.
“It was later on that I was texting you, and I told you about mamma—that we just found out that she had bladder cancer,” the musician said on the October 2021 episode of Living & Learning. “And you said, ‘Hey, you just feel free to call me anytime you need to talk.’ And I just quit texting and then we’ve been talking ever since.”
Rex also remembered how Reba called him and offered her condolences after his mother died in 1998.
“We talked for about 25 minutes, and I never forgot it,” he added. “It was amazing, it was uplifting, it was really special and little did I know 20 years later, 21 years later I’d be doing the same thing with her on the phone.”
March 2022
The couple had a fancy night out at the 2022 Oscars, where Reba performed “Somehow You Do.”
August 2022
In August 2022, it was announced that Reba and Rex were taking their love to the small screen by playing married couple Sunny and Buck Barnes on Big Sky.
“We love working together because when we’re at home, we get to practice, rehearse and he’s a rehearsal schedule freak,” Reba told ABC Audio in 2022. “He makes sure I know my lines before I ever go on stage.”
November 2022
“Happy birthday to the love of my life!” she wrote on Instagram in November 2022. “So glad we get to celebrate together!”
2023
The pair continued on their journey as both costars in life and work by acting in The Hammer.
2024
And their castmates agreed they seemed pretty happy working on Happy’s Place, which premiered in 2024.
“It’s adorable and oftentimes … we’re taking a five-minute break or we’re having breakfast or lunch and you look over and we have a bar set—it takes place at Happy’s Place—and you look over and they’re in a booth at the bar,” Melissa Peterman, who also starred on Reba, told People in October 2024. “And it looks like they’re legitimately on a date at a restaurant just sitting together being so adorably cute.”
2024
In fact, Reba noted she could see them being happy long term as husband and wife.
“Totally, if that’s what Rex wants,” the “What If” artist, who was married to Charlie Battles before her union with Narvel, told E! in April 2024. “I’ve been married twice. After the second one dissolved, I don’t have much faith in being bound by a piece of paper or a ring. But I’m truly committed to Rex. So if that’s something he feels totally strong about, that’s fine with me. He’s never been married before. So if he wants to experience that, I’m OK with that.”
January 2025
Five years after their first dinner, Reba and Rex recreated the photo from that date.
September 2025
What do you say to a proposal? Well, Reba said yes to Rex, with them confirming their engagement to E! News at the 2025 Emmys.
E! News learned that the couple had gotten engaged “a few months ago” and that “they are very happy.”
