Reba McEntire and Rex Linn’s Relationship: Inside the Country Star and Actor’s Romance (Including Their Adorable Nicknames for Each Other!)

Five years since they first started dating, Reba McEntire is still smitten with her boyfriend, Rex Linn.

Though the pair first met while starring in a Kenny Rogers film together in the early 1990s, their friendship did not turn romantic until 2020.

"Rex and I get along in every aspect," she told Fox News Digital of Rex ahead of the 2025 ACM Awards, which she is set to host for a record 18th time.

"He's a better cook than I am, so I like that, for sure. We love Longhorns, we love the cowboy way of life, cowgirl way of life, and we both got into the entertainment industry," she continued. "He's an actor. I'm a singer. I love to act. Now we act together."

The "Rumor Has It" singer went on to call her relationship with Rex the "perfect union," adding, "We get along great. We do argue now. We argue a lot, but we have fun doing that too."

From their red carpet debut and their adorable nicknames for each other, to costarring on Happy's Place, here's everything to know about Reba McEntire and Rex Linn's relationship.

Reba and Rex met on the set of a Kenny Rogers movie

Reba and Rex initially met in 1991, on the set of the Kenny Rogers TV movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.

"We kept in contact over the years, we both know the same people," Reba revealed during a November 2020 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. "So it was just like good friends getting back together and having dinner."

"Then we started texting and talking on the telephone and getting to know each other better during the quarantine," she continued.

They started dating in January 2020

During an October 2020 episode of her podcast, Living & Learning, Reba revealed she was dating Rex, calling him "a very, very sweetheart of a guy."

They went out to dinner earlier that year, in January 2020, and then grew closer when they started talking, texting, and FaceTiming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

During quarantine in March 2020, they started "Coffee Camp," a daily call during which they would catch up.

"It was a very special relationship, us getting to know each other without any physical aspect to it at all," Reba told Rex on Living & Learning in October 2021. "We'd talk in the morning, we started 'Coffee Camp' while I was staying in Oklahoma ... We haven't missed a 'Coffee Camp' since March 16."

Rex replied, "I was in California, she was in Tennessee and sometimes my 'Coffee Camp' started at 3 a.m. but man I have never missed one; I don't wanna miss one."

Reba and Rex made their red carpet debut in November 2020

When Reba co-hosted the CMA Awards with Darius Rucker in November 2020, she brought along a special date: her boyfriend, Rex. The event marked the couple's red carpet debut.

"We're both excited that he's going to be there with me," Reba told PEOPLE ahead of the awards ceremony.

Since their CMA Awards debut, the couple have attended multiple red carpets and events together. They even managed to keep it cute while dressed up as creepy Beetlejuice characters when they appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show in October 2024.

They've acted together

The pair first met while appearing in a 1990s TV movie, but they have shared the screen multiple times in recent years.

Reba and Rex reconnected on the set of Young Sheldon and then went on to costar in the Lifetime original movie The Hammer. In 2022, they played a married couple, Buck and Sunny Barnes, on the third season of ABC's Big Sky.

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The two are currently acting together on Reba's latest sitcom, Happy's Place. The series follows Bobbie (Reba), who inherits her father's bar after his death. Rex plays Emmett, the restaurant's short-order cook.

"We're running lines constantly," Rex told PEOPLE about working with his longtime girlfriend. "But every once in a while, I'll sneak by for a quick kiss, just a peck on the cheek and keep on moving. It's fun."

They have sweet nicknames for each other

Rex calls Reba "tater tot" — a pet name that started their very first dinner after reuniting.

"On the menu was tater tots, and I just went nuts because I love tater tots. Rex is famous for giving people nicknames, and he said, 'That's yours,' " Reba recalled on Living & Learning.

"My nicknames are legendary. They stick with people, but I never premeditate them," Rex explained. "They always have to present themselves, and that was the perfect moment."

Reba is "tater tot," while Rex is "sugar tot" — a nickname that Reba's sister, Susie, originally suggested.

"When we were in quarantine, I was in Oklahoma, there on the home place and Rex had [started] calling me tater tot. Susie said, 'Tater tot, well why don't you just call him sugar tot?' and so it stuck," the singer said while co-hosting Today with Hoda & Jenna in April 2023. "So, we're the tots. Sugar and tater. Pretty silly, but we love it."

Reba and Rex have been "pretty much inseparable" since they first started dating

Reba and Rex have known each other since the early '90s, but they reconnected after the death of Reba's mother, Jacqueline.

"In 2020 when Mama got sick, he called me," she said on Today in October 2021. "We'd gotten to see each other before because we're both on Young Sheldon. So 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," she added.