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Reba McEntire’s fiancé, Rex Linn, “knocked it out of the ballpark,” when he planned the country star’s 71st birthday celebration.
McEntire turned 71 on Saturday (March 28). She shared photos from her birthday celebration on Instagram the following day, and said, “I have to put my 71st birthday as the best birthday of my entire life. Leslie, Nic, Rex, and I had a blast celebrating in Las Vegas.” McEntire gushed over the Cirque du Soleil show, watching Wizard of Oz on the immersive screen at Sphere Las Vegas, and revisiting the iconic Sphere for an Eagles show. She said it was “a night I will never forget!
“[Rex Linn] knocked it out out [sic] of the ballpark this year and is already planning next year’s birthday,” McEntire said. She added, “thank you all for all these comments. That made my birthday even better!”
McEntire and Linn, 69, met in the early 90s while filming Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw. They reconnected while working on Young Sheldon in early 2020. Linn invited McEntire to dinner, and the pair have “been together ever since.” The Happy’s Place stars confirmed their engagement at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2025; however, McEntire revealed afterward that she and Linn had been engaged since Christmas Eve 2024. She told PEOPLE, We were going to make the announcement when we got back to L.A. in January, and the fires happened. And it wasn’t appropriate. …He’s very romantic. Very romantic. 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.”
McEntire confirmed to E! News on the red carpet at the 2026 Grammy Awards that she and Linn “pushed the wedding back,” because they’re both busy with ongoing projects (and Linn declared, “work comes first”). She previously shared on TODAY that “a Reba-Rex wedding is going to be very different. It’s gonna be low key, lots of fun, lots of people, lots of food. Our big motto is ‘have fun.’”