Reba McEntire and actor Rex Linn first met on a movie set in 1991, then spent the next twenty-nine years as friends before a quiet dinner in 2020 changed everything between them.

Their paths first crossed while filming Kenny Rogers’ television movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. They hit it off right away as colleagues and stayed in touch over the decades while their separate lives, careers, and marriages unfolded.

In January 2020, they crossed paths again on the set of Young Sheldon, where Linn played Principal Tom Petersen and McEntire appeared as guest star June Ballard. Linn asked her out to dinner, and a plates-of-tater-tots meal gave them their lifelong nicknames for each other, “Tater Tot” and “Sugar Tot.”

Weeks later, two things happened almost at once: pandemic lockdowns separated them across different states, and McEntire’s mother, Jacqueline, passed away in March. Unable to be there in person, Linn stayed on the phone with Reba for hours every day, sharing meals over video calls and listening through her darkest months of grief.

By the time they walked the CMA Awards red carpet together in November 2020, the friendship they had protected since 1991 had quietly grown into a partnership built for the rest of their lives. Behind the scenes at her shows and television tapings, the actor she met nearly three decades ago is now the man waiting in the wings with a bottle of water and a steady embrace.

When Reba McEntire and actor Rex Linn walked onto the location set of Kenny Rogers’ television movie The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw in 1991, both already shared deep roots in Oklahoma and Texas before the cameras ever rolled.

McEntire had a leading role in the Western as Burgundy Jones, while Linn played a supporting role as a henchman named Henry. Born in Spearman, Texas, and raised in Oklahoma City after his family moved there in 1969, Linn had worked in an oil field and at a local bank before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time.

With McEntire having grown up on an Oklahoma cattle ranch, the two immediately bonded on set over their shared Southwestern upbringing and mutual friends in the industry. At the time, McEntire was married to her manager, Narvel Blackstock, and Linn was building a screen career that soon included roles in Cliffhanger, Wyatt Earp, and a long run as Detective Frank Tripp on CSI: Miami.

For the next twenty-nine years, their connection remained strictly a warm, long-distance friendship. Whenever their work overlapped in Los Angeles or Nashville, they exchanged messages or said hello, watching from afar as their separate careers and personal lives went through major changes.

McEntire divorced Blackstock in 2015 after twenty-six years of marriage and later dated retired oil geologist Anthony “Skeeter” Lasuzzo from 2017 until the fall of 2019. By early 2020, both she and Linn were single when McEntire traveled to California to film a guest appearance as hairstylist June Ballard on the CBS sitcom Young Sheldon.

Linn was already a recurring cast member on the series playing high school principal Tom Petersen, alongside McEntire’s longtime Reba co-star Melissa Peterman. Knowing McEntire was coming to town for the taping in late January 2020, Linn texted her to ask if she wanted to meet for dinner.

After eating dinner together in Los Angeles, the group walked down the street to a wine bar. When the server mentioned they had appetizers, including tater tots, McEntire raised her hand right away to order a plate, prompting Linn to tell her that “Tater Tot” was her nickname from that night forward.

She immediately answered back by naming him “Sugar Tot”. Weeks after that evening in California, McEntire received word that her mother, Jacqueline, had suffered a stroke and was in declining health, followed closely by the nationwide COVID-19 shutdowns in March 2020.

After Jacqueline passed away on March 14, 2020, McEntire quarantined in Oklahoma with her sister Susie to clean out their parents’ house. Separated across states with travel halted, Linn called McEntire every morning to check on her, launching a daily routine they called “Coffee Camp” where they talked by phone and FaceTime for hours.

Knowing the sisters were spending long days sorting through family belongings, Linn also began mailing food packages to Susie’s house in Oklahoma. Almost every day, another delivery arrived at the door, including Perini Ranch steaks from Texas, lobster tails, pecan pie, and pints of McConnell’s ice cream that Susie rationed out to one scoop a night while they watched television.

By the time travel restrictions eased enough for them to reunite in person in June 2020, the twenty-nine-year friendship had quietly turned into a committed romance. They made their relationship public that October after a trip to Montana and walked the CMA Awards red carpet together in November 2020.

In 2024, the couple brought their partnership back to television when they co-starred in the NBC sitcom Happy’s Place, with McEntire playing tavern owner Bobbie and Linn playing the restaurant’s cook, Emmett. Between scenes on set and backstage at her concerts and The Voice tapings, Linn became a constant presence waiting in the wings.

On Christmas Eve in December 2024, thirty-three years after their first scenes together on The Gambler Returns, Linn proposed with a black diamond ring. The two Oklahoma kids who stayed friends for nearly three decades are now planning a multi-day wedding on their farm surrounded by their horses, donkeys, and dogs.