Table of Contents
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn Say “Yes”
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn have made it official: they are engaged!
The pair quietly announced their joyful news at the Emmy Awards 2025 red carpet in September, after an E! News reporter calling them fiancés, they reacted with a smile and a nod.
Despite the fact that the country singer and the actor were first acquainted during the filming of a Kenny Rogers movie in the early 1990s, their friendship did not turn into love until 2020.
A “Perfect Union”
“Rex and I really do get along in all aspects,” Reba McEntire shared with Fox News Digital in May 2025. “We love the cowboy lifestyle, the cowgirl way, and both of us were in the entertainment industry, so we kind of got that.”
The singer of Rumor Has It went on to compare her connection with Rex Linn to a “perfect union” by declaring, “We get along great. The thing is we don’t argue at all we argue a lot, but in a different way. We have fun doing that too.”
Through their red carpet debut to their adorable engagement, here is everything about Reba McEntire and Rex Linn’s love story.
1991: On Set, First Meeting
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn were strangers to each other in 1991, however, they became acquainted the same year, while they were working on the TV movie of Kenny Rogers, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.
“We stayed in touch during all the years, as both of us have mutual friends,” Reba stated during a November 2020 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “So it was just like good friends getting back together and having dinner.”
That friendship became more intense during the beginning of the pandemic. “Then we began to communicate by texting and talking on the phone and getting to know each other better,” she said.
January 2020: Reba and Rex Begin Dating
Reba McEntire disclosed that she was with Rex Linn while talking about her pod living and learning, October 2020. Reba when picturing him said: “a very, very sweetheart of a guy.” Their first dinner together was impulsed by Rex in January 2020, and it was just before the pandemic was declared. Their relationship as the world was shutting down, became stronger through their frequent communications—texting, talking, and FaceTiming.”It is nice to have someone to talk to, to laugh with, to get into different subjects about what is happening,” Reba said. “Just really great to be able to talk to someone that I find very interesting, very funny, very smart, and that they are interested in me, too.”
March 2020: ‘Coffee Camp’ Begins
When the coronavirus crisis resulted in a lockdown in March 2020, Reba and Rex initiated a cozy ritual called ‘Coffee Camp’. This was a daily phone call they made to keep in touch and share their day.
“It was a very special relationship, us getting to know each other without any physical aspect to it at all,” Reba told Rex on Living & Learning in October 2021. “We’d talk in the morning, we started “Coffee Camp” while I was staying in Oklahoma … We haven’t missed a “Coffee Camp” since March 16.”
Rex added his perspective: “I was in California, she was in Tennessee and sometimes my ‘Coffee Camp’ started at 3 a.m. But man, I have never missed one; I don’t wanna miss one.”
November 2020: Red Carpet Debut
The last time Reba and Rex were spotted they appeared together for the first time on the red carpet at the 2020 CMA Awards – an event where Reba co-hosted alongside Darius Rucker. She said to PEOPLE after the event, “We’re both excited that he’s going to be there with me. ” Since then, the pair have been on the road together, attending different events and premieres. They were also out to show that they had a fun and playful side when they appeared at The Kelly Clarkson Show in October 2024, dressed up as weird Beetlejuice characters.
2020s: Sharing the Screen Again
Reba and Rex came face-to-face for the first time on the set of a 1990s TV movie, but after their reunion, they have been working together on multiple occasions.
On the set of Young Sheldon, they met again but later became co-stars in the Lifetime original movie The Hammer. Their collaboration extended into the third season of ABC’s Big Sky in 2022 when they were cast as married couple Buck and Sunny Barnes.
2025: Acting Side by Side in Happy’s Place
Recently, Reba and Rex were once more reunited to create magic for Reba’s new sitcom, Happy’s Place. The show centers on Bobbie (Reba), who becomes the owner of her father’s bar that has passed away; meanwhile, Rex is the restaurant’s short-order cook, Emmett.
“We are constantly rehearsing our lines,” Rex told PEOPLE about working with his fiancée. “But, every now and then, I will briefly walk past her for a quick kiss, just a peck on the cheek and keep moving. I can say that it is a nice little break.”
Sweet Nicknames: “Tater Tot”
Reba and Rex have the cutest nicknames in the world. One of them is that Rex names Reba “tater tot” in a very loving way. It is the pet name that they came up with during their very first dinner after their reunion.
“The food was tater tots, and I just went crazy because I love tater tots,” Reba reminisced on Living & Learning. “Rex is known for giving people nicknames, and he said, ‘That’s yours.’”
Rex gave the reason for his habit of inventing monikers: “My nicknames are legendary. They remain with people, but I never do it on purpose. They always have to come up, and that was the right time.”
“Tater Tot” and “Sugar Tot”
Reba’s nicknames were not the only ones to be affected by the peculiar names. While Rex refers to her as “tater tot,” Reba’s sister Susie came up with a fitting nickname for him: “sugar tot.”
”Basically, during the quarantine, I stayed at home in Oklahoma and Rex turned around and started calling me tater tot. Susie said, ‘Tater tot, why don’t you just call him sugar tot?’ and so it got stuck,’”, Reba shared during her Today with Hoda & Jenna guest spot in April 2023. “So, we are the tots. Sugar and tater. Kind of silly, but we love it.”
2020: From Reconnection to Inseparable
While Reba and Rex were acquainted back in the early ’90s, their restored relationship was triggered by the death of Reba’s mother, Jacqueline.
“When Mother became ill in 2020, he rang me,” Reba revealed on Today in October 2021. “Because we’re both on Young Sheldon, we had been to see each other a little bit. So from March 2020 on, we just kept in touch and visiting and then finally got together, see each other in June.”
She went on to say, “And, pretty much, we have been together ever since.”
September 2025: Engagement Confirmed
Reba and Rex announced their engagement on the 2025 Emmy Awards red carpet. When chatting with E! News, the reporter mentioned Rex as Reba’s fiancé but the couple didn’t dispute the statement, just gave their agreement by smiling, and letting the delighted news be their witness.
“They are very happy and it was a while ago,” a source informed PEOPLE after the event, ”It’s a new chapter in their lives.”
