Celebrity Exes
Reba McEntire Makes Rare Comment About Ex-Husband Narvel Blackstock
Reba McEntire is happily dating Rex Linn, but she’ll always be connected to her ex-husband, Narvel Blackstock, since they share a son, Shelby Blackstock.
The country singer rarely discusses her past marriages (her first husband, of 11 years, was Charlie Battles), but she made a reference to Blackstock in a new interview. While playing a game where she had to see how well she knew her song lyrics, she spoke about the father of her only child.
McEntire was tasked by Variety with guessing what song the lyric, “He smiles that little crooked smile, there’s no denying he’s your child,” is from. She incorrectly guessed “What Do You Say?” The correct answer was “He Gets That From Me.”
“Oh, that’s right!” she exclaimed. “Those two were recorded at the same time. This resonated so much with me because of my son, Shelby. He takes after me in some ways, and he takes after his dad in some ways. When I recorded it, I thought, ‘This is for Shelby.'”
McEntire married Blackstock, her manager and former guitar player, in 1989. They separated in early 2015 and finalized their divorce later that year. The split was reportedly amicable, but Blackstock walked away with $47.5 million in the settlement.
During a 2024 interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, McEntire recalled how her marriage to Blackstock was more about business than romance. “I think it works for some people. They can be married or have a relationship and work together,” she said. “Our work was all the time. Our marriage was 26 years. We started out working together in the band. He was part of the band, and then became my manager, later on then my husband, but it was a situation that was always business, whether we were getting ready in the morning, pillow talk, whatever, but it was business.”
In January 2020, McEntire started dating Linn after they reconnected on the set of Young Sheldon (McEntire had a guest appearance in Season 3, while Linn was a recurring character.) However, they’ve known each other since the early 1990s and initially met on set of The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.
