Rex Linn Sent ‘Foodie’ Reba McEntire Treats to Connect During Their Quarantine Courtship

Country star Reba McEntire reconnected with Rex Linn at what might have seemed to others like an inopportune time. While the world slowed to a halt in response to the pandemic, they had just sparked what turned into a long-distance relationship.

Now, they agree their bond is more remarkable for how it started. First and foremost, the two chatted on the phone every single day. But Linn said he was looking for other ways to connect with the “foodie” and took a chance on trying to impress her taste buds with food from all over the U.S. The adoring gesture seems to have worked.

Reba McEntire and Rex Linn started a standing tradition in quarantine

While conversing on McEntire’s Living & Learning with Reba McEntire podcast, the couple said the pandemic initially separated them. They reconnected and then continued texting while they had to stay in different states to follow safety protocols.

McEntire noted their relationship went from text messages to phone calls when she found out her mother was terminally ill with cancer. Eventually, they’d created a routine of talking every morning, which they called “Coffee Camp.”

“Coffee Camp has turned into a great institution,” Linn shared. McEntire agreed, “More people oughta do it.”

They have upheld the tradition, even if they can only get in one cup due to scheduling. But now they have in-person camps. “We say good morning, and we kiss and say, ‘I love you,'” she explained. “[It’s a] great way to start the morning.”

Rex Linn wooed Reba McEntire with food in quarantine

As Linn pointed out, that wasn’t the only ritual they established while they were isolating separately. “Speaking of quarantine,” Linn told McEntire, “I sent you food during quarantine a lot of times.”

McEntire laughed, but Linn explained he was trying to find a way to “connect” with the country superstar, beyond hours of daily conversations, that is. “I would send you food from all over the country,” he recalled. “Because I’m a foodie, and you’re a foodie.”

As McEntire recalled, he first sent a pecan pie from Good Company Barbecue in Houston, Texas. She said it was so good it left her and the family members she quarantined with “flabbergasted.”

As a sweet side note, she kept as mementos the pie box it came in along with the note Linn sent.

McEntire said she, her sister, and brother-in-law weren’t leaving her sister’s house except for her brother-in-law to get groceries, so they were absolutely stoked for the deliveries. She said she received lobster rolls, ice cream, and beef tenderloin, to name a few.

Reba McEntire said she and Rex Linn became ‘inseparable’ once they could break out of quarantine

McEntire revealed in an interview with TODAY that she and Linn finally got together in person again in June 2020 after beginning their virtual Coffee Camps in March. “And we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since,” she added.

Linn often appears on McEntire’s Instagram doing chores with her on her Tennessee farm, which they reportedly share now. And as they concluded their podcast chat, he told her it had been “one of the highlights of [his] career” to join her.

“[I] love you dearly …” he told her, “and I look forward to moving forward in this life with you.”