Is Reba McEntire hearing wedding bells?
According to a source, the country crooner is itching to tie the knot with boyfriend Rex Linn — partly because of ex-husband Narvel Blackstock's April wedding to her old friend Laura Stroud.
"That’s what’s really egging her on," the confidante spilled to a magazine. "Reba’s tried to put a brave face on, but it’s got to hurt."
The source noted the mom-of-one, 69, "feels she’s met her true soulmate in Rex."
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McEntire and the actor, 67, first met around three decades ago, but things didn't turn romantic until they reconnected in 2020 after the red-headed superstar appeared on his show Young Sheldon.
"It was just like a magnet," she recalled of their first date. "We didn't get to see each other from January 'til June 16, but we created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone that we wouldn't have gotten if we'd have been together all of that time. We've been pretty much inseparable ever since June 16 of 2020."
"You know the ins and outs of their personality and their faults…You love them for the way they are, instead of it being a total attraction and sizing them up because of appearance," The Voice coach explained.
McEntire — who was also married to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987 — has been repeatedly asked about the idea of marrying Linn in countless interviews, though she's always given the same vague answer.
"I'm truly committed to Rex. So if that's something he feels totally strong about, that's fine with me," she shared. "He's never been married before. So if he wants to experience that, I'm OK with that."
However, a source insisted, "She says getting married is 'up to him' but that’s code for 'put a ring on it!' She wants the fairy tale."
McEntire is surely glad that Linn isn't in the music industry, as she revealed in a past interview that her relationship with Blackstock — who is the father of her only child — became more like a business partnership.
"I think it works for some people. They can be married or have a relationship and work together," she explained of being in the same field. "Our work was all the time."
"Our marriage was 26 years. We started out working together in the band," she said. "He was part of the band, and then became my manager, later on then my husband, but it was a situation that was always business — whether we were getting ready in the morning, pillow talk, whatever, but it was business."
Star reported on McEntire's desire to marry Linn.