Photo: Getty Images
Reba McEntire and Rex Linn are engaged!
The legendary country star confirmed her engagement to her longtime boyfriend on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted Sunday (September 14) at The Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. Live From E!: 2025 Emmys correspondent Zuri Hall referred to Linn, 68, as McEntire’s fiancé on the red carpet ahead of the event. McEntire, 70, replied, “we're having a blast on Happy's Place and so glad to be here tonight.” PEOPLE also confirmed the engagement on Sunday evening.
The two Happy’s Place stars — who teased a romance between their two characters in the upcoming season of the sitcom — first met in 1991, on the set of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. They reconnected while working on Young Sheldon in early 2020. McEntire said during a previous appearance on the Jennifer Hudson Show that she and Linn made dinner plans, and “went down the street to a wine bar and they said, ‘well, I understand you’ve already had dinner, but we do have some good appetizers…we have tater tots.’” Linn decided in that moment that McEntire’s nickname would be “tater tot,” and McEntire opted to name him “sugar tot” in return. They’ve “been together ever since.”
McEntire said in an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this year that she loves the dynamic between the couple’s characters on Happy’s Place. Linn is “probably the sane one in the group. On the Reba show, I was the voice of reason, and now he is. So, I get to be in the whirlwind of chaotic stuff. I love it. I love it [giving herself permission to be ‘the crazy one’ this time]. …He’s a good guy. I like him a lot.”