All Reba McEntire wants for Christmas is a cozy couple of days at home with fiancé Rex Linn.
“It’s been a very busy year with doing The Voice and Happy’s Place, since June,” McEntire, 70, exclusively told Us Weekly on The Voice season 28 Lives red carpet on Monday, December 15.
She teased that the couple are “really looking forward to getting back to Tennessee, sitting in front of the fire, doing a lot of cooking and getting caught up with family and friends.”
While McEntire is a world-class entertainer as an actress, musician and mentor on the NBC competition series, she joked that being a cook is not in her wheelhouse.
“I’m gonna let Rex do the cooking. I clean up,” she said with a laugh, noting their holiday feast will be courtesy of Linn, 69.
McEntire gushed about her fiancé, telling Us, “Oh, he’s a great — well, I don’t know about chef — but he’s the type that will spend three days on a recipe.”
The “Fancy” singer, meanwhile, revealed that she’ll “just get in the refrigerator, and I’ll start getting stuff out and making stuff.”
McEntire called herself “the spare, last minute cooker,” while Linn “studies” his recipe and menu beforehand. “I’m not a studier,” she confessed.
When Us pointed out that McEntire “got a keeper” with Linn, McEntire completely agreed. “Oh, well, you bet,” she gushed.
During the interview — which took place shortly before season 28’s The Voice finalists Aubrey Nicole (Team Reba), Aiden Ross (Team Niall Horan), Jazz McKenzie (Team Michael Bublé), Ralph Edwards (Team Snoop Dogg), Max Chambers (Team Michael) and country group Dek of Hearts (Team Niall) performed for America’s vote — McEntire also revealed the best advice she had for her contestant, which was courtesy of Linn. (Ross was ultimately dubbed the winner on Tuesday, December 16.)
“Have fun. That is the best advice I’ve ever gotten. And Rex, my fiancé, says it all the time. Have fun no matter what you’re doing,” McEntire told Us of her go-to motto. “But before you get to have fun, you’ve got to be prepared, know your lines or your song, whatever it is, so you can go up there on that stage, when the lights come on and the microphone is in your hand, you can have fun, because you know what you’re supposed to do. You’re prepared.”
She continued, “Like when we say when we’re acting and we’re performing on Happy’s Place, ‘If it’s on the page, and if it’s good, you’ve got to learn it to be able to have fun with it.’ So get comfortable with it.”
McEntire and Linn have learned to not only live as a couple during their relationship, but they have thrived working together on NBC’s Happy’s Place.
The pair first met filming 1991’s The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, but it wasn’t until January 2020 that they began dating.
Amid their budding romance, McEntire and Linn began playing Bobbie and Emmett, respectively, on Happy’s Place in 2024. The musician later revealed that she and Linn got engaged that Christmas Eve, but kept it quiet for nearly 10 months.
“Wedding planning is impossible because of scheduling,” McEntire exclusively told Us in November. “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.’”
She confessed, “Work comes first, in other words.”
Despite pressing pause on their wedding plans, McEntire and Linn have been enjoying their first holiday season as an engaged couple.
Ahead of Thanksgiving, McEntire shared that she and Linn had decided to forgo their usual plans and decided to “see a double-header at the movies and go out to eat.”
“Valentine’s Day, we go to Sonic and have hamburgers and tater tots,” McEntire told People, noting the couple like “low key” celebrations. “And then Thanksgiving, we’re starting our new tradition!”
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