Reba McEntire Opens Up About Getting Married Again & ‘Love of My Life’ Rex Linn

Rex Linn and Reba McEntire in Big Sky


ABC / Michael Moriatis
ABC / Michael Moriatis

Reba McEntire has a lot to be happy about professionally with a return to scripted comedy and her role as coach on The Voice on top of her status as an iconic, beloved country music star.

She also has plenty of reasons to smile about her romantic life, too, with partner, CSI: Miami actor Rex Linn.  Now Reba, 69, is opening up about the man she calls “the love of my life” and addressing whether they will get married.

“We’ve been together for almost five years,” McEntire said in an interview with Us Weekly. “And my health is good, his health is good. My family is healthy, What more could I ask for?

“Rex and I are best friends. We have the same likes and dislikes. We’re foodies. We love to cook. We each wanted to be a cowboy and cowgirl. Then we got into the entertainment business instead. Our dynamic works on and off screen.”

She noted how they like to watch sports together on TV, and enjoy time in their garden feeding the birds and tending to their roses. “We just love to be together.”

Along with being in love, McEntire and Linn also work together in the upcoming NBC sitcom aptly titled Happy’s Place. McEntire plays Bobbie, who inherits her dad’s tavern where she has worked for a decade. The twist is she discovers the new co-owner is a 20-something half-sister sister named Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) she didn’t even know about.
Rex Linn as Emmett and Reba McEntire as Bobbie in Happy's Place pilot

Casey Durkin/NBC

Linn takes on the role of Emmett, a short-order cook. McEntire and Linn actually first met in 1991 on the set of the western drama The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. They also had some time on Big Sky.

“I think we have made each other better,” Reba says of her beau. “Rex brings out the little girl in me and I have fun. I’m dorky, I’m goofy. He is too. We love to laugh, and we love each other.”

McEntire spoke about Linn’s culinary skills in the kitchen at home to TV Insider during a feature previewing her show’s premiere on October 18. She revealed her nickname for her boyfriend is “Tater Tot.”

“We cook together, but he’s the type that will find a recipe and cook for three days. I’m like, ‘What’s in the refrigerator?’ I just pile it all together,” McEntire said.

Before getting together with Linn, McEntire was divorced twice. First to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987. She then got with Narvel Blackstock in 1989 before officially calling it quits in 2015.

As for if McEntire gets married again she responded to US Weekly by saying, “I’m fine with the way we are. If Rex ever wants to get married, then we’ll talk about it, but I’m fine. I love our relationship 100 percent.”