Reba McEntirehas lots of love for her “sugar tot.”
While filling in forHoda KotbonToday with Hoda & Jennaon Monday, the Grammy-award-winning country star, 68, discussed her relationship with her boyfriend of three years, actorRex Linn— whom she shares a cute nickname with.
“He is’Sugar Tot.' I’m ‘Tater Tot,'” McEntire told co-hostJenna Bush-Hageron the show. “We’re ‘the Tots.'”
Tater tots were even brought out for the hosts to eat as they spoke to Linn, 66, who joked from a corner of the stage that he “already had tater tots this morning.”
ABC via Getty
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McEntire went on to explain that the pair’s history dates back to 1991, when they starred together inThe Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.
“I was one of the actors. He was one of the actors, and he gets a big kick out of it — he says his part was riding into a saloon on a four-year-old Colt and going, ‘Yeehaw!'” McEntire said.
“We stayed in communication all those years, and then in 2020, right before the pandemic, we had dinner together and have been together ever since,” she continued. “I couldn’t get close enough to him.”
Bush-Hager noted elsewhere on the show that it was “so much fun” to see McEntire “so in love,” to which she responded, “I’m telling you, he’s a great guy to be in love with.”
McEntire, who is set toappear onThe Voice’s Season 23 as mega mentor, recalled theorigin of her relationshipwith Linn onThe Jennifer Hudson Showlast month.
She said the plans didn’t come to fruition for a couple of weeks, but they eventually went out for a meal together. “We all went to dinner, had a good time, went down the street to a wine bar, and they said, ‘Well, I understand you’ve already had dinner, but we do have some good appetizers,'” said McEntire.
“I said, ‘What do you have?’ They said, ‘Well, we have tater tots.’ I went, [raises hand], and so Rex said, ‘That’s your nickname from here on out — Tater Tot,'” she told hostJennifer Hudson.
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McEntire said on her podcastLiving and Learning with Reba McEntirethat she got the nickname “sugar tot” from her sister, who jokingly told her to “Tell ‘Sugar Tot’ hi for us,” while she was on the phone with Linn.
Describing her relationship with Linn in October 2020, she said: “It’s good to have a person to talk to, laugh with, get into subjects about what’s going on. Discussions about our past, our family, funny stories, him being an actor, me being an actress. And he’s very into my music. I’m very into his career.”
“It’s just great getting to talk to somebody who I find very interesting, very funny, very smart and is interested in me, too,” she added.
source: people.com