Reba McEntire is making sure there’s no confusion about her relationship status with Rex Linn.
McEntire, 70, corrected Today cohost Savannah Guthrie when she incorrectly referred to Linn, 69, as the country singer’s “husband” on Monday, December 1.
“You also met your husband there,” Guthrie, 53, told McEntire. “So, Rex, good ole Rex …”
McEntire then jumped in to clarify that she and Linn aren’t married yet. (Linn, who was in the studio during the interview, also looked confused by Guthrie’s word choice when the camera cut to him.)
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“Now, wait a minute. Before everybody has a conniption fit at home, we’re just engaged,” she said.
After Guthrie apologized for the error, McEntire said the explanation was really to save her from scrutiny from her loved ones.
“My family will go, ‘Wait, you didn’t tell us?!’” she continued.
McEntire went on to gush about working with Linn on her NBC sitcom, Happy’s Place.
“He is a workaholic, and he loves to rehearse,” the “I’m a Survivor” singer said. “Me, not so much on the rehearsal part, so he really makes sure that I know my lines, that I’m ready to go when we have a tape day. We have a blast. We’re so grateful and thankful that we get to go to work together, work together and then go home together.”
Us Weekly confirmed McEntire and Linn’s engagement earlier this year after they sparked rumors at the 2025 Emmys when a reporter referred to the couple as fiancés.
During her Today show appearance, McEntire shared that they got engaged in December 2024 but wanted to wait to announce the news.
“Almost a year in December,” she revealed. “A lot of people did not know. And when he asked me to marry him, it was Christmas Eve a year ago. So, we were gonna announce it when we got back to L.A., but the fires happened. And there was not room for our joy in a devastating situation that everybody else was in.”
Though the engagement news coming out in September was a little impromptu, McEntire said she “didn’t correct” the reporter at the Emmys when she called Linn her fiancé because it “sounded good to me.”
Though Linn and McEntire are engaged, it may be a while before the lovebirds walk down the aisle. The Voice coach exclusively told Us earlier this month that she has struggled to plan the wedding.
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“Wedding planning is impossible because of scheduling,” she said at the 2025 Paley Honors Fall Gala on November 10. “We’re like, ‘Well, we want it this month, but if work comes up, we’ll be there for work, and then we’ll go get married later.’”
McEntire added, “Work comes first, in other words.”
McEntire and Linn began dating in 2020, nearly 30 years after they first met while filming The Gambler Returns in 1991.
“We instantly bonded over living in Oklahoma and our love for horses and acting,” McEntire wrote in her 2023 book, Not That Fancy. “He made me laugh, and we became good buddies.”
