Reba McEntire is getting married! The singer walked the red carpet at the recent 2025 Emmy Awards with Rex Linn, whom she has been dating since early 2020. Although McEntire has yet to publicly comment on the engagement, she reportedly confirmed on the red carpet that she and Linn have decided to tie the knot.
“We’re having a blast on Happy’s Place and so glad to be here tonight,” she said when a reporter referred to Linn as her fiancé.
McEntire was at the Emmy Awards to perform “Thank You for Being a Friend,” with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman, as part of a 40th anniversary tribute to The Golden Girls. McEntire also presented the trophy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In a Comedy Series.
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When Did Reba McEntire and Rex Linn Start Dating
McEntire and Linn first met while filming The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw in 1991. In 2020, they reconnected when they were both appearing in the hit TV show, Young Sheldon.
“Right before the pandemic, January of 2020, I had gone out to LA to shoot Young Sheldon,” McEntire recalls on Live With Kelly and Ryan. “Well, a good friend of mine that I’d met in ’91, on The Gambler movie with KennyRogers, Rex Linn, he was also doing Young Sheldon. So he texted me and said, ‘Hey, you’re coming out to LA. Let’s have dinner.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”
The two went to dinner as a group, although it was immediately clear that sparks were flying between Linn and McEntire. Afterwards, they went to a wine bar, where Linn’s nickname for McEntire began.
“The lady said, ‘Well, I know you guys have already had dinner, but we do have some appetizers,’” McEntire shares, adding that she immediately ordered tater tots when the server said that was one of the menu options.
“I love tater tots, and that’s my nickname. Tater Tot,’” McEntire says. “Rex gave it to me that night.”
What Reba McEntire Said About Marrying Rex Linn
McEntire has been married twice before, most recently to Narvel Blackstock. The two divorced in 2015, after 26 years of marriage. As early as 2021, McEntire and Linn were talking about saying “I do.”
“We’ve talked about it and giggled about it,” McEntire admits to Extra. “We thought, ‘Man if we ever had a ceremony, we would have to have a 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 and an 8:00, ‘cause we have so many friends, acquaintances, and family.”
Linn has never been married, which is why McEntire said the decision of whether or not to become husband and wife was entirely his decision.
“That would be up to him,” McEntire says on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “I’ve been married twice, he’s never been married, so if he wants to, that’s totally up to him.”
McEntire and Linn not only live together, but they also work together, on the hit TV show, Happy’s Place. It was McEntire who brought Linn to the show, after she was already cast as the lead.
“When we were working on this, they said, ‘We’re going to have a short-order cook,’ and I said, ‘That’s gotta be Rex,’” McEntire recalls on the Today Show. “We have a blast. I love it. He brings me into work. He drives us to work and then takes us home, and he’s my rehearsal coach, so I rehearse a lot.”
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