All About Reba McEntire and Rex Linn’s Darling Relationship

Born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma, Linn has been acting in movies and TV shows since the ’80s, but is perhaps best known for his role as Sgt. Frank Tripp in CSI: Miami. Linn, 67, also played Kevin Wachtell in Better Call Saul and Principal Tom Peterson in Young Sheldon. 

Beyond these roles, Linn has a long list of acting credits including JAG, Cheaper by the Dozen, Django Unchained, and Big Sky. 

Linn also has an upcoming role in NBC’s new sitcom Happy’s Place alongside McEntire, 69. But this isn’t the first time the couple has worked together. In 2023, Linn starred as a cowboy in The Voice Coach’s TV movie, Reba McEntire's The Hammer. Decades before, however, the two actors both landed roles in the 1991 western drama, The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. 

While McEntire and Linn met over 30 years ago, they didn’t start dating until 2020. The “I’m a Survivor” singer revealed on her podcast, Living & Learning, that she started dating Linn in January 2020 and they were “having a blast” getting to know each other better. 

"It's good to have a person to talk to, laugh with, get into subjects about what's going on," she said on her podcast. "It's just great getting to talk to somebody who I find very interesting, very funny, very smart and is interested in me, too.”

For the first six months of their relationship in 2020, McEntire and Linn really only connected over the phone. 

“Because of the pandemic we didn’t get to see each other from January until June 16, but we created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone that we wouldn’t have gotten if we’d been together all that time,” McEntire told E! News. “So it was very special and a great way of finding out about each other without ever touching.”

“We’ve been pretty much inseparable since June 16, 2020,” she added.

While they’d already been dating for half a year, McEntire went public with her relationship with Linn on October 4, 2020. “Yeah, yeah, I am [dating],” McEntire revealed on a dating-themed episode of her Live & Learning podcast. “A very, very sweetheart of a guy, Rex Linn.”

"I think it's very important to be selective about when you want to talk about your private life,” she added. “He's very special and since we're having a dating segment for the podcast, I think it's very appropriate for me to talk about Rex … I put myself in his shoes, and I said, 'If he was doing this podcast [about dating] and he didn't mention me, I would be crushed.'"

A few weeks later, Linn posted a photo of himself and McEntire on Instagram, revealing his cute nickname for his other half. “TATER TOT,” he captioned the photo of the couple sitting side-by-side. “Angel on the ground (and on a cooler).”

If that's not adorable enough, McEntire calls Linn "Sugar Tot" and they call themselves "The Tots."