EXCLUSIVE: Reba McEntire Got the Ring! Country Queen's Longtime Boyfriend Rex Linn Finally Popped the Question After Five Years of Dating... All Thanks to Dolly Parton
Reba McEntire is engaged after longtime boyfriend Rex Linn proposed with Dolly Parton's influence.
Oct. 14 2025, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
After five years of dating, Reba McEntire and Rex Linn are getting married – and the country singer has her good friend Dolly Parton to thank for the proposal, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Jolene legend, 79, adores their romance and had been telling Linn to stop dragging his feet.
Dolly Steps In
Dolly Parton encouraged Rex Linn to propose to Reba McEntire after years of dating.
Parton saw Rex "ignoring Reba's hints about wanting to get engaged, and it infuriated Dolly," said an insider.
"He joked that they're like a married couple already and don't need a ring to prove it, but Dolly's not afraid to tell it like it is, and she thought he should pop the question already. And he did."
News of their engagement broke after a reporter on the 2025 Emmy Awards red carpet on September 14 referred to them as fiancés.
Reba In Love
Linn and McEntire reconnected in 2020 following the death of her mother.
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McEntire, 70, and Linn, 68, first met in the 1990s but didn't begin dating until 2020, when they reconnected after the death of her mother and bonded during quarantine.
"Their love story," said the insider, "is sweet. They are both very happy."
Before the big engagement, McEntire talked about marriage during an October 2023 appearance on Watch What Happens Live.
After a fan asked the country icon if she would ever get married again, McEntire said: "That would be up to him. I've been married twice, he's never been married, so if he wants to, that's totally up to him."
