Photo: Getty Images
Reba McEntire shared a sweet birthday tribute to her fiancé, Rex Linn, on Thursday (November 13).
“Happy birthday to the love of my life! So thrilled we get to have coffee camp together, go to work together, and have fun at Happy’s Place together! Have a great birthday, Sugar Tot!!!!!“ McEntire, 70, wrote in her caption on Instagram as she celebrated Linn’s 69th birthday.
McEntire and Linn met while filming Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw in 1991. They reconnected while working on Young Sheldon in early 2020, and made plans to go to dinner together. McEntire shared during an appearance on the Jennifer Hudson Show that after going to dinner, she and Linn “went down the street to a wine bar and they said, ‘well, I understand you’ve already had dinner, but we do have some good appetizers…we have tater tots.’” Linn decided in that moment, based on McEntire’s enthusiastic reaction, that the country legend’s nickname would be “tater tot.” McEntire decided to name Linn “sugar tot” in return. They’ve “been together ever since,” including on the sitcom Happy’s Place. Their characters recently sparked an onscreen romance in the newly-premiered second season.
McEntire and Linn confirmed their engagement on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in September; however, McEntire shared in an interview with PEOPLE that they actually got engaged on Christmas Eve.
“He’s very romantic. Very romantic,” McEntire said in the interview. “It was up to him, totally. Yeah. I had no idea. It was a total surprise. It was Rex Linn timing. I mean, I totally was thrilled to death. And I asked him, I said, ‘well, when do you want to do this?’ He said, ‘oh…let’s have fun with the engagement time.’ So, we haven’t set a date or anything. We’re just enjoying each other.”