Reba McEntire is embracing 70 with gratitude, success and a love story decades in the making.
While reflecting on her current mindset, the country legend revealed she is ‘happier now than’ any other period in her life.
‘It’s amazing. It’s wonderful being 70 and getting to do what I get to do at the level I want to do it,’ she told People.
The Consider Me Gone singer credits much of her newfound joy to her fiancé, actor Rex Linn.
‘I’ve never been loved by a man like Rex Linn,’ McEntire gushed. ‘Rex is a very tender-hearted man, and I just love him with all my heart. He’s a good guy. Real bashful though,’ she added with a smile.
McEntire and Linn’s paths first crossed more than 30 years ago, when they first met on the set of The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw in 1991.
Reba McEntire is embracing 70 with gratitude, success and a love story decades in the making; seen in 2022
At the time, their friendship never turned romantic, but fate clearly had other plans.
After reconnecting in 2020 while guest-starring on Young Sheldon, the pair began talking regularly.
‘In 2020, when Mama got sick, he called me,’ McEntire shared during a 2021 appearance on Today. ‘Starting in March of 2020, we just kept talking and visiting and finally got together, see each other in June. And we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since.’
News of their engagement broke in September when McEntire and Linn walked the red carpet together at the 2025 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Rather than making a formal announcement, the couple simply smiled and nodded when an E! News reporter referred to them as ‘fiancés’ — a subtle confirmation that delighted fans who have been rooting for their relationship for years.
Although the public only learned of the engagement recently, McEntire revealed to People that Linn, 68, actually popped the question last December.
The duo now stars side-by-side in NBC’s sitcom Happy’s Place, which returns for season two on November 7.
For McEntire, working with Linn, as well as costars Melissa Peterman and Belissa Escobedo, has been nothing short of a dream.
While reflecting on her current mindset, the country legend revealed she is ‘happier now than’ any other period in her life; pictured with her fiancé Rex in September 2025
‘I’ve never been loved by a man like Rex Linn,’ McEntire gushed. ‘Rex is a very tender-hearted man, and I just love him with all my heart’
‘Wherever we go, that is our Happy’s Place,’ she said. ‘Spending our days together on set has been a blast.’
Beyond Hollywood, McEntire and Linn share a down-to-earth bond rooted in their country roots and sense of humor.
‘We get along in every aspect,’ she told Fox News earlier this year, teasing that Linn is ‘a better cook’ than her. ‘We love Longhorns, we love the cowboy way of life, cowgirl way of life, and we both got into the entertainment industry. He’s an actor. I’m a singer. I love to act. Now we act together.’
Linn echoed her sentiments in a recent interview with WBIR Channel 10, calling McEntire his ‘best friend’ and adding that they ‘wanna cross the finish line with each other in a relationship.’
While their relationship only turned romantic five years ago, McEntire and Linn first met back in the 1990s on the set of The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (seen in February 2024)
McEntire was previously married to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987.
She walked down the aisle for a second time with her manager, Narvel Blackstock, in 1989.
They split after 26 years of marriage in 2015.
Prior to manager, Linn, she also dated Skeeter Lasuzzo, a geologist, from 2017 to 2019.
