Reba McEntire is smitten with her fiancé, actor Rex Linn, if her touching birthday tribute to the 69-year-old is anything to go by. The country icon took to Instagram to share a sweet message on Rex’s birthday, alongside a snap of the pair at an event together, with Reba in a bejeweled black dress and her Happy’s Place co-star in a white collared shirt and black leather jacket. “Happy birthday to the love of my life! So thrilled we get to have coffee camp together, go to work together, and have fun at Happy’s Place together! Have a great birthday, Sugar Tot!!!!!” she wrote in the caption.
Fans couldn’t get enough of the cute couple, who first met on the set of The Gambler Returns in 1991 and later reconnected in 2020. “Y’all are the cutest,” wrote one fan, while another added: “Happy Birthday to the man who put that beautiful smile back on Reba’s face!!!!!” A third chimed in: “Thank you for taking care of our girl!” while another declared: “What a match!”
Reba and Rex announced their engagement in September when the redheaded beauty appeared at the 2025 Emmy Awards with a dazzling ring on her finger. They then revealed that he had actually proposed 10 months prior, in December 2024, on their 130-acre ranch outside of Nashville.
“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘Would you marry me? I want to cross the finish line with you,'” Reba recounted to USA Today, adding that she was left speechless. “He said, ‘You’re not saying anything!’ And I finally said, ‘Well, yes! Yes!’ He thought he was going to have to jump into the creek.”
Learn more about their sweet love story below…
Reba and Rex have no immediate plans to tie the knot and instead are enjoying their time together. “What we’re doing right now, honestly, is enjoying our engagement time. We haven’t set a date, we’re just going to enjoy our engagement and enjoy going to Happy’s Place every day,” Rex told E! News. Reba added that their wedding will be “a lot of fun”.
“It’s gonna be a nontraditional wedding because that’s Rex and me. We like comfort, we love friends, we love food,” she added. The couple work together every day on the set of Happy’s Place, which has strengthened their bond even further. “Getting to work with Rex, drive to work with Rex and do the show, the rehearsals, drive home, talk about it, rehearse together – that’s what’s really special for me,” the mother of one told People.
© Getty Images“I’ve not had that before…I’ve never been loved by a man like Rex Linn,” she added. “Rex is a very tender-hearted man, and I just love him with all my heart. He’s a good guy. Real bashful though.” Reba was previously married to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987, and to her manager, Narvel Blackstock, from 1989 until 2015. The former couple share a son, Shelby, 35.
The 70-year-old opened up about her difficult divorce from Narvel, sharing that she was left heartbroken when they split. “My manager was my husband from 1989 to 2015. Everybody took care of everything. All I had to do was get up and sing,” she told Esquire. “When that dissolved, all that team went with him, and I was scared to death. I was deserted, abandoned, and left. I threw a fit.”
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