Reba McEntire and Rex Linn are opening up about their engagement. The two got engaged on Christmas Eve of 2024, waiting until recently to share the good news. Now, McEntire and Linn reveal how he popped the question, and how the Country Music Hall of Fame member responded.
The two were out for a walk on McEntire’s 130-acre ranch, when Linn unexpectedly got down on one knee.
“I said, ‘What are you doing?'” McEntire recalls to USA Today. “And he said, ‘Would you marry me? I want to cross the finish line with you.'”
McEntire was speechless at first, until she realized she hadn’t answered the question.
“He said, ‘You’re not saying anything!’ ” McEntire recounts. “And I finally said, ‘Well, yes! YES!’ He thought he was going to have to jump into the creek.”
What Rex Linn Says About Proposing to Reba McEntire
Linn says that after he asked McEntire to marry him, the singer was quiet for “about 21 seconds. And even a five-second pause feels like an hour.”
“I thought, if she doesn’t say ‘yes,’ I’ll just disappear into that creek,” he adds. “But then she said ‘yes’ three times.”
As for a wedding date, the ceremony may have to wait a while.
“She’s got 13 free days in 2026,” Linn shares. “We’re just enjoying the engagement, right now. When we set a date, we’ll set a date.”
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Reba McEntire’s Relationship With Rex Linn
McEntire doesn’t always wear her diamond ring, which is likely how their engagement stayed under wraps for so long. But she does say she loves looking at it while it’s on her hand.
“It sparkles all the time, and it doesn’t matter that I don’t think I’ve ever cleaned it,” McEntire says. “I’m having a blast. I feel like a teenager again. It’s just a wonderful time.”
McEntire and Linn live and work together, both starring in the hit NBC sitcom, Happy’s Place. They also ride in to work together, and spend almost all of their time side-by-side.
“We’re great rehearsal partners. We’ll go to bed with our scripts and wake with them,” says McEntire. “But many mornings we sit out back and watch the hummingbirds while having coffee.”
“In the morning, when I’m shuffling down the hall to get Coffee Camp, Rex will say, ‘You’re the prettiest woman in the world,'” she adds. “And I’ll say, ‘Okay, put your glasses back on.'”
For McEntire, life has never been sweeter than it is right now.
“I’m 70 years old, 50 years in the business, and I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my life,” says McEntire. “God saved the best for last.”
Why Reba McEntire and Rex Linn Kept Their Engagement a Secret
McEntire and Linn surprised fans by announcing their engagement, but that wasn’t the original intent. The couple planned to share the good news at the start of 2025, but never felt the time was right.
“We were going to make the announcement when we got back to L.A. in January, and the fires happened,” McEntire tells People. “It wasn’t appropriate. Our joy was like, ‘Oh my gosh, these people are losing their homes, if they can get out of their homes.’ We had to evacuate twice. So that wasn’t the time. And the time never presented itself until the Emmys, when it just happened. It wasn’t planned at all. It was his choice. We went to Africa last year, and he had planned – he took the ring – but nothing ever presented itself. So, December 24 did.”