After two failed marriages, Reba McEntire is wary of "being bound by a piece of paper or a ring" for forever.
Although admittedly smitten with her beau of four years, Rex Linn, McEntire said after her marriage to second husband Narvel Blackstock collapsed, she lost faith in any civil union.
"I've been married twice. After the second one dissolved, I don't have much faith in…being bound by a piece of paper or a ring," she told E! News. The couple divorced in 2015.
"But I'm truly committed to Rex, so if that's something he feels totally strong about, that's fine with me. He's never been married before. So if he wants to experience that, I'm okay with that."
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McEntire was previously married to Charlie Battles from 1976 through 1987, meeting Linn a few years later when she was with Blackstock.
"Rex and I have known each other since 1991, and we have been friends, stayed in communication throughout the years, and then in 2020 before the pandemic, I was gonna come in to do an episode of ‘Young Sheldon,’ which Rex has been on since the very beginning."
"And so he texted me and said, ‘Are you coming to L.A. to shoot ’Young Sheldon'?' And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Let’s go to dinner when you're through.' And I said ‘Okay.’"
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"Well, we had about a 12-hour day and I text him back, I said ‘I’m too tired but I'm coming back next week to L.A., so we'll have our dinner then.' And I don't know what it was, timing is everything. I've been married twice and for some reason, Rex Linn was…it was just like a magnet," she admitted.
The couple did not get to see each other due to the pandemic for several months, but they "created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone we wouldn't have gotten if we'd had been together, all that time, so it was very special."
McEntire added that "it was a great way of finding out about each other without ever touching. And we've been pretty much inseparable ever since June 16 of 2020. It was a wonderful way to get to know each other better."
"He is a very caring, down-to-earth, funny individual. He's got a very witty sense of humor, very creative, and I make him laugh. And that's what he said he's always prayed for is, ‘God, please put me with a woman that makes me laugh.’ Because he loves to laugh."
