Reba’s New ROMANCE
THE COUNTRY MUSIC QUEEN HAS FALLEN FOR AN ACTOR WHO SHARES HER OKLAHOMA ROOTS
Ten months after their first date, Reba McEntire has finally fessed up about the new man in her life! “It’s just great getting to talk to somebody who I find very interesting, very funny, very smart, and is interested in me, too,” she admits.
Since January, Reba has been quietly dating Oklahoma-reared actor Rex Linn, who is best known for playing Frank Tripp on CSI:
Miami from 2003 to 2012. Currently, he portrays Principal Petersen, a recurring character on
Young Sheldon, a show on which Reba guest-starred in February. That can’t be a coincidence!
While Reba, 65, had kept mum about her new love until very recently, Rex, 63, wrote a clearly smitten post about the country music queen on Instagram last winter. “Had a fantastic dinner with this Oklahoma girl,” he gushed in January. “Tater Tots and ketchup included!” Born in Texas, Rex moved to Reba’s home state of Oklahoma as a teenager, which gives them a lot to talk about. “They have a ton of similar interests,” says an insider. “Rex is a great listener and storyteller. They have had a lot of fun conversations about their pasts and their careers.”
Since March, many of these chats have occurred remotely. Rex is based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., while Reba calls a suburb of Nashville, Tenn., her home base. “We were talking, texting, [doing] FaceTime,” Reba says. “And that’s a really good way to get to know people. [We have] discussions about our past, our family, funny stories about him being an actor, me being an actress. He’s very into my music. I’m very into his career.”
FOREVER LOVE
This upbeat singer began testing the waters with Rex a few months after ending her long-distance romance with former oil company geologist and Jackson Hole, Wyo., wildlife photographer, Anthony “Skeeter” Lasuzzo. “It wasn’t working between Reba and Skeeter for a while before they split. She fell out of love,” confides the insider, who notes that hardworking Reba and retired Skeeter were at different places in their lives.
Still, admitting that her relationship with Skeeter wasn’t a good fit anymore was difficult for Reba — and a bit embarrassing! Just months before they parted as friends, Reba had publicly gushed about how “totally in love” they were. “I wouldn’t put up with somebody for two years if I wasn’t in love with ’em!” she insisted.
While Reba can’t predict her future with Rex, she feels fortunate they met. “Some say that Reba is jumping into this relationship with Rex too quickly,” admits the insider. “But Rex came into Reba’s life at exactly the right time. She can’t remember feeling so strongly about a man. She thinks he’s just fabulous and a total sweetheart.”
Reba appreciates that Rex is in the entertainment field and understands her commitment to and passion for her work in a way that Skeeter never did. “He understands the sacrifices and the downside
of fame,” explains the insider.
Like Reba, Rex has had to take some big leaps of faith in his career. The never-married actor spent his post-college years in business before moving to Hollywood in the early ’80s. “I didn’t have the courage or the opportunity to try acting then. So I did what I could, and that was banking,” Rex explains. When his bank went under, Rex moved west and traded in his suit for a cowboy hat in the 1988 TV movie Bonanza: The Next Generation. “I get to play a cowboy, and when you grew up on a horse, playing a cowboy is real easy,” Rex said at the time.
Since then, Rex has continued to act in movies and on television. In addition to Young Sheldon, he is expected to return for the sixth and final season of Better
Call Saul, scheduled to air next year. “Even though he’s nowhere near as big a star as she is, he understands Reba’s fame,” notes the friend. “And there has been no clash of egos.”
THE HEART WON’T LIE
In these difficult times, Reba has really appreciated having Rex to confide in. “She’s opened up to him about a lot of things — like her devastation over [stepson] Brandon [Blackstock’s] divorce from Kelly [Clarkson],” says the insider. “Rex has been a shoulder for her to lean on and is full of good, constructive advice. Reba says that he is a caring and understanding man.”
Friends are cautiously optimistic that Rex is a keeper. “He is different from any man she’s ever met,” says the insider. “She gets butterflies whenever she hears his voice.”
Still, it’s hard to say if Reba will ever be ready to fully commit again. The unexpected end of her 26-year marriage to Narvel Blackstock, the father of her son, Shelby, 30, turned her world upside down in 2015. “What I’m learning is to live every day and take that day to live it,” she said in the aftermath of her divorce. “And don’t think about the past. What’s past is past; you can’t do anything about it except forgive, forget and go on. And then the future, that’s tomorrow.”
Hopefully, that tomorrow will include Rex. “She always said she’d never marry again, but who knows? Right now, she is head over heels in love,” says the insider. “There is always a possibility that we’ll be hearing wedding bells in the near future.”
“It’s good to have a person to talk to [and] laugh with.”
— Reba