Reba McEntire and Rex Linn have adorable nicknames for one another, inspired by one of the country music icon’s favorite snacks.

McEntire recently sat down with Jennifer Hudson on the Jennifer Hudson Show, talking about serving as a Mega Mentor on Blake Shelton’s final season of The Voice, trending on TikTok and more. Hudson asked McEntire to tell the audience about her boyfriend, an actor McEntire called “a handsome rascal.” McEntire told the story of how she and Linn began dating, and how that story inspired her new nickname:

“We met in 1991 on the, we were both in the movie with Kenny Rogers, (The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw). And so, his best friend from sixth grade is Ed Gaylord [film producer E.K. Gaylord II], and I’ve known Ed for a long time, so we were all friends. And then in January of 2020, before Covid, I was doing Young Sheldon… Rex was doing Young Sheldon, (and) so was Melissa Peterman, who played Barbara Jean on the Reba show. So, Rex texted me and said, ‘you’re gonna be in town?’ I said, ‘yeah.’ He said, ‘well, let’s go to dinner.’ Well, didn’t get to it that week. I was out the next week, and he said, ‘how about that dinner?’ So, 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…we have tater tots.’”

That's when McEntire immediately — enthusiastically — raised her hand, “and so, Rex said, ‘that’s your nickname from here on out.’”

Hudson needed to know, what’s Linn’s nickname in the relationship? McEntire shared that she calls him “sugar tot. We’re the tots… Sugar and tater. So, we’ve been together ever since.”

Watch the interview here:

Chris Carr & Company