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Reba McEntire and longtime partner Rex Linn are engaged after five years of dating.
During an interview with E! Online ahead of Sunday’s 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, a reporter referred to Linn as McEntire’s fiancé, and the couple did not correct it. A representative for McEntire confirmed the news to Fox News Digital.
The couple first met in 1991, but were just friends until 2020, when McEntire guest-starred on his show “Young Sheldon.”
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Reba McEntire and longtime partner Rex Linn are engaged after five years of dating. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” in 2023, a fan asked if she and Linn, nicknamed “Sugar Tot,” would get married, and she said, “That would be up to him.”
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“I’ve been married twice, he’s never been married, so if he wants to, that’s totally up to him,” she continued.
One year later, McEntire admitted she doesn’t have “much faith” in marriage given her history.
“I’ve been married twice. After the second one dissolved, I don’t have much faith in… being bound by a piece of paper or a ring,” she told E! News.
McEntire and Linn first met in 1991 on the set of “The Gambler.” (Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
“But I’m truly committed to Rex, so if that’s something he feels totally strong about, that’s fine with me. He’s never been married before. So if he wants to experience that, I’m OK with that.”
That same year, McEntire described the dinner that kicked off their romance during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
“I don’t know why. We had talked and communicated throughout the years, had a mutual friend, Ed Gaylord, and we stayed in contact. But for some reason, that night was just so special,” she told Barrymore.
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She revealed she asked Linn why they didn’t start dating sooner, explaining he had responded by saying, “Probably because you would have killed me.”
In an interview with E! News, McEntire said her connection to Linn was, “like a magnet.”
“We didn’t get to see each other from January till June 16 [due to COVID], but we created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone that we wouldn’t have gotten if we’d have been together all of that time. It was very special. It was a great way to find out about each other without ever touching.”
McEntire told Barrymore she wasn’t initially attracted to her boyfriend Linn. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
“We’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since June 16 of 2020,” she added.
McEntire felt the time apart made their relationship solid from the start.
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“You know the ins and outs of their personality and their faults… You love them for the way they are, instead of it being a total attraction and sizing them up because of appearance,” she explained to E!, adding that people tend to “gravitate to the physical so quickly.”
The country star was previously married to her former manager, Narvel Blackstock. The couple divorced in 2015. Her first husband was cattle rancher Charlie Battles, who she was married to from 1976 through 1987.
