Reba McEntire was candid about her first impression of her boyfriend.
During an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” McEntire shared what it was like to reconnect with her now-boyfriend, Rex Linn, on the set of “Young Sheldon” right before the COVID-19 shutdown.
“We were all going out to dinner. Melissa [Peterman] He says that was our first date, because, I mean, I was like a magnet for Rex. I just couldn't get close enough to him,” she told Barrymore. “I don't know why. We had talked and communicated over the years, we had a mutual friend, Ed Gaylord, and we stayed in touch. But for some reason, that night was so special.”
She has since asked Linn why they didn't take their relationship to the next level sooner and told Barrymore that he had responded by saying, “Probably because you would have killed me.” McEntire did not disagree with his assumption and said: “He is a wild man. He is 12 years old.”
REBA MCENTIRE SHARES THE TERRIFYING ACTIVITY SHE AND HER BOYFRIEND ENJOY TOGETHER: 'HE'S SCARED TO DEATH'
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn met years ago. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
Both the singer and Linn have had serious relationships in the past: McEntire was married twice and Linn was engaged four times.
After dinner, McEntire and Linn went to a wine bar, where she enthusiastically revealed her love of tater tots. Hearing that, McEntire recalled Linn telling her, “I'm famous for calling people nicknames, and that's your nickname.”
“Later during the pandemic, I was in Oklahoma with my sister Susie and she said, 'You know he gave you Tater Tot, let's give him Sugar Tot,'” she said. “So we're the little ones. Sugar and Tater. How about that? Isn't that cute?”
The two also bonded over their mutual love of the Western lifestyle, explaining that they both wanted careers in rodeo, but since they didn't have much talent for it, she turned to music and he became an actor.
McEntire shared the cute nicknames she and Linn have for each other. (Photo by Sara Jaye/Getty Images for SONIC)
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McEntire and Linn met in 1991 when they both starred in the film “The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw” with Kenny Rogers. They were both in a relationship at the time, but were both available when they reconnected on the set of “Young Sheldon.”
“It's nice to have a person to talk to, laugh with, broach topics about what's going on,” she said on an episode of her podcast, “Living & Learning,” in October 2020. “Discussions about our past, our family, funny stories, him as an actor, me as an actress. And he is very interested in my music. I am very interested in his career.”
Due to the pandemic, the beginning of their relationship was long-distance, with Linn living in Los Angeles and McEntire living in Oklahoma and Nashville. The “Fancy” singer told People in October 2023, after meeting in January 2020, that they didn't see each other in person again until June of that year.
“It was phones, Zooms, text messages, so we really got to know each other before it was any physical contact,” she explained.
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McEntire recently starred on the final season of “Big Sky” with her boyfriend, Rex Linn. (Michael Moriatis/ABC via Getty Images)
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The two would star together in “Big Sky,” playing husband and wife in the show's third season. “Every scene was fun for me, because I was working with her,” Linn told Country Now in January 2023, adding that the two would “wink at each other in the middle of a scene.”
