Reba McEntire reveals how she was NOT initially attracted to her boyfriend Rex Linn

By AMY LAMARE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 19:35 01 Mar 2024, updated 19:44 01 Mar 2024

Reba McEntire sat down with Drew Barrymore on Friday to talk about her boyfriend Rex Linn.

Reba, 68, and Rex, 67, met in 1991 while filming The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw and became friends but didn't pursue each other romantically.

The E.T. star went on to talk about how people grow and change and how she wouldn't want to meet her younger self again. 

The women referred to attraction to their partners as 'magnets' and Reba revealed that she didn't feel that magnet to Rex when they first met in 1991.

But she does now and the couple have been happily dating for a bit more than four years.

She said Rex was like a magnet for her upon their second meeting in 2020, adding: 'I couldn't get close enough to him.'

'I asked Rex, how come we've known each other and never gotten together,' The Voice judge said of their reacquaintance four years ago and adding that he replied jokingly that she probably would have killed him.

'He's a wild man. He's a 12-year-old,' Reba said which made Drew nearly spit out her coffee. 

Reba has been married twice and Rex has been engaged four times but never married, according to the Fancy singer.

Reba talked about their shared interest in Western lifestyles and how he wanted to be a cowboy and she wanted to be a championship barrel racer but, in her words: 'We weren't good at it, so he went into acting and I went into music,' she said simply.

On the set of Drew's talk show, a giant bowl of tater tots sat on the table in front of them.

The 50 First Dates actress referred to them as the 'Everest of tots,' and asked if the potato dish had anything to do with Rex. Reba nodded and proceeded to explain.

After taping an episode of Young Sheldon with Rex, 'We all went to dinner, had a good time, went down the street to a wine bar, and the waitress said, "Well, I understand you've already had dinner, but we do have some good appetizers,"' she added.

She asked the wine bar what they had and they said, 'Tater tots,' prompting the Big Sky star to enthusiastically raise her hand in support of eating tater tots.

She told Drew: 'I really love tater tots,' before revealing that Rex told her he was famous for giving out nicknames. 

'And so Rex said, "That's your nickname from here on out — Tater Tot,"' she explained, adding that she calls Rex 'Sugar Tot.'

'We're the tots — sugar and tater. So, we've been together ever since. He's a sweetheart,' she added.

The Never Been Kissed actress, 49, drew the country music icon out and got her to dish more on her relationship of four years and how they got together as romantic partners nearly 30 years after they met.