Decades in the making! Reba McEntire and Rex Linn first crossed paths 30 years before they started dating.
The “Fancy” songstress met the actor while shooting 1991’s The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.
“We’ve kept in contact with each other over the years, and we both know the same people, so it was just like good friends getting back together having dinner in January,” she explained on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in November 2020. “And then we started texting and talking on the telephone, getting to know each other better during the quarantine.”
McEntire was previously married to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987 and music manager Narvel Blackstock from 1989 to 2015. She shares son Shelby, born in 1990, with Blackstock.
“The divorce was not my idea. I didn’t want it in any shape, form or fashion,” the country music legend told CMT’s Cody Alan in 2016. ”So it was really hard to make the adjustment, when someone’s not happy. I just want everybody to be happy in their lives, because our lives are too short to be miserable.”
She added at the time: ”The thing that got me through this change in life, is number one, God. I prayed every day to help me have the strength to move one foot in front of the other, and continue on with what I’m supposed to be doing … and then with my team … and my friends, my family, my girlfriends.”
Despite the divorce, McEntire stayed close to the Blackstock family, including stepson Brandon Blackstock and Kelly Clarkson, who announced their split in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage. (The former couple share daughter River and son Remington.)
“We’re family,” McEntire told Us Weekly in 2019 before Clarkson and Brandon’s split. “She married my oldest son, Brandon, but we’re also good friends, so that goes a long way — when you can have a good friend as a part of your family.”
More recently, after the American Idol alum’s divorce got messy, she told Extra: “I love them both. … I am pulling for both of them. I hope they’re happy and healthy and pull through this. I pray everyone gives them the encouragement they can because they need it right now, both of them do. I love the both of them with all my heart.”
The Reba alum, meanwhile, made things red carpet official with Linn during fall 2020 and the pair have been showing off their love ever since.
Scroll through to see a timeline of their romance: