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Rex Linn Reveals Reba McEntire's Secret Food Habit That "Drives Him Nuts"

The Happy's Place actress has a strong affinity for this condiment. 

By Elizabeth Logan

Reba McEntire likes her snacks as red as her hair. The Voice Coach and star of NBC's new sitcom Happy's Place has an unusual food preference, and her boyfriend Rex Linn is not a fan. Read on to find out what it is.

What Reba McEntire does that drives Rex Linn nuts

How to Watch

Watch the premiere of Happy’s Place Friday, October 18 at 8/7c on NBC.

NBC Insider caught up with Linn, also an actor on Happy's Place, to ask what the public might not know about his girlfriend, and Linn revealed, "You won’t believe it. She puts ketchup on everything."

"It just drives me nuts. Everything. She’ll put ketchup on ice cream," he continued, adding, "There are 17 bottles of ketchup in that refrigerator." That's a lot of ketchup!

Rex Linn and Reba McEntire cook together on the TODAY Show

How Reba McEntire and Rex Linn got together

In an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, McEntire talked about how she and Linn met: "Well, Rex Linn, my boyfriend, he's a handsome rascal...His best friend from sixth grade is Ed Gaylord, and I've known Ed for a long time, and so we're all friends," she explained. 

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"And then in January of 2020, before COVID, I was doing Young Sheldon, Rex was doing Young Sheldon, so was Melissa Peterman, who played Barbra Jean on the Reba show. So Rex texted me, 'You gonna be in town?' I said, 'Yeah,'" she continued. "We all went to dinner, had a good time, went down that street to a wine bar, and they said, 'Well, I understand that you've already had dinner, but we do have some good appetizers.' I said, 'What do you have?' They said, 'Well, we have tater tots.'"

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McEntire got so excited about tater tots (another item to put ketchup on?) that it made Linn smile. "And so Rex said, 'That's your nickname from here on out: Tater Tot,'" McEntire revealed. "We're the tots, Sugar and Tate...we've been together ever since. He's a sweetheart." Four years later, they're still going strong.

"He's the first person I talk to when I get up each morning and the last person I talk to before I go to sleep each night," McEntire wrote in her 2023 book, Not That Fancy. "I'm having fun being in love again. Romantic relationships should be fun — I don't care how old you are. Love should bring you joy and make you feel good, and I'm never going to settle for anything less."