Reba McEntire is opening up about her sweet romance with her boyfriend, Rex Linn. The couple began dating in 2020, unaware that their relationship would have to be long-distance soon after it began.
“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 Kenny Rogers , 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 dinner was supposed to include several other people, including her good friend Melissa Peterman, but it soon became clear that McEntire only had eyes for Linn. When McEntire’s manager, Marne McLyman, dropped her off at the valet, the Grand Ole Opry member bolted.
“I hop out; I leave her,” McEntire remembers with a chuckle. “I run and see Rex, and I hug him. I say, ‘It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other’ … I sidled up to him.”
Their group later went to a wine bar, after dinner, where McEntire showed her true colors, and Linn’s affectionate nickname for her 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 raised her hands when their server said one of the menu items was tater tots.
“I love tater tots, and that’s my nickname. Tater Tot,'” McEntire says. “Rex gave it to me that night.”
Although their romance had to shift because of COVID-19, Linn still was able to treat McEntire to some of her favorite foods, by sending them to her from all over the country.
“McConnell’s ice cream. Perini’s steaks, and all kinds of beef from south Texas … and then he’d send me lobster and just all kinds of stuff. Pecan pies,” McEntire says.
McEntire and Linn star together in the upcoming Lifetime movie, The Hammer. They also appear together in ABC‘s Big Sky.
“We have a blast,” McEntire tells Good Morning America of working with Linn. “We’ve been working together since ’91. We were on The Gambler movie with Kenny Rogers in ’91. And then we did a movie for Lifetime this summer in Canada. It’s called The Hammer. And we were kind of like love interests, and now we get to play husband and wife, Buck and Sunny. He makes me rehearse so much, by the time we get on the set, I know my lines, your lines, your lines. But it’s fun. I love it.”
McEntire just announced the release of Reba: The Ultimate Christmas Collection. The 12-song record will be released on October 14. Pre-order is available here. She will kick off the fall leg of her Reba: Live in Concert Tour on October 13 in Lafayette, Louisiana, with Terri Clark joining her for all dates. Tickets for McEntire’s upcoming tour are on sale now. Find more information at Reba.com.