Narvel Blackstock Felt ‘Awkward’ After Reba McEntire’s First Divorce Because He Was ‘Buddies’ With Her Husband
Country music icon Reba McEntire had her reasons for leaving her first husband, Charlie Battles. But her second husband, Narvel Blackstock, wasn’t one of them. Still, he confessed to feeling “awkward” about her first divorce. Why did he feel weird after McEntire split from Battles?
Reba McEntire married her ‘ruggedly handsome’ first husband
Before hitting it big in country music, McEntire married older, “ruggedly handsome” Battles in 1976. He was a championship steer roper, and she was a barrel racer with dreams of being a famous singer. They married when she was 21, and he had two children.
Notably, McEntire’s brother, Pake, skipped their wedding in protest. In her autobiography, Reba: My Story, she wrote that Pake disagreed with her decision to marry Battles. And in time, she saw that he was right to be concerned.
According to McEntire, the marriage started to unravel as Battles became more possessive. She wanted to be a country music superstar, and he eventually wanted her to focus more on the ranch they shared.
To make matters worse, Battles also liked to trade, and she said he once sold her favorite horse without telling her just for the deal. After about a decade of marriage, McEntire filed for divorce, which was granted in 1987.
At that point, Blackstock had been part of McEntire’s music organization for years. And when she decided she no longer wanted Battles involved in her career, he was there to take on the open responsibilities.
Why Narvel Blackstock felt ‘awkward’ after Reba McEntire divorced her first husband
In McEntire’s autobiography, Blackstock offered, “It was a very difficult time for me from a couple of different standpoints.”
He shared he’d never been that involved in a professional music career, and McEntire became his responsibility “totally” once Battles was gone and he was her music manager. “… It was awkward because Charlie and I had been buddies,” he offered.
McEntire and Blackstock had shared a kiss at that point, she admitted, but she told him she didn’t decide to leave Battles for him. She disclosed, “… I had to tell Narvel straight out, ‘This is what I wanted to do with my life, for myself. I didn’t divorce Charlie because of you.’”
Blackstock’s first marriage was also coming to an end. McEntire revealed in Reba: My Story that he delayed filing for divorce “as long as possible” to avoid sending the message that the two breakups were related. She said “both marriages had been dying for years” and added, “Their funerals just happened to come a few months apart.”
Reba McEntire married secon husband Narvel Blackstock in 1989, and they split in 2015
McEntire shared that “it took a full nine months” before they were a couple following their respective splits. She said their romance was initially a “growth process” during which they became fans of one another.
They married in 1989 and split in 2015, something she confessed was not her idea. In 2020, she began dating actor Rex Linn and, as reported by CMT, they are working on a Lifetime movie in which she will star.
