In fact, the continent of Africa is so special to the couple, that Rex kept trying to propose his Happy’s Place costar while the duo were on vacation there last year. But as it happened, the opportunity never presented itself.
“I took the ring with me,” Rex told host Drew Barrymore during a joint interview with Reba on The Drew Barrymore Show Dec. 11. “The moment that I found a little area I thought I was good—we had an African guide named Mumps, and I came around the corner one evening.”
As the 69-year-old recalled, he told their guide that he was thinking about proposing to the country singer, but hadn’t “found a place yet.”
“’But, you know, we were driving back down this road, and over on the left side there was a little body of water down there,’” he told Mumps, “’and kind of a pretty meadow, and I was thinking about doing that.’”
Unfortunately, as their guide explained, the area was probably not the best choice for a proposal.
“He just looks at me,” Rex recounted, “and goes, ‘Well, brother, that’s sort of an evening migratory walkway for male leopards. It wouldn’t be a good time.’”
And that revelation sealed the deal for him to scrap his original plans.
“I knew then that I was done looking for another spot,” he joked. “I thought, ‘Yeah, you know what, I’ll just back off that one.’”
Luckily, Rex finally found the perfect time to propose to the 70-year-old on Christmas Eve in 2024, although the couple didn’t confirm the news until September of this year.
And as Reba—who was previously married to Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987 and to Narvel Blackstock from 1989 to 2015—explained, she and Rex are very much looking forward to their upcoming nuptials.
“It’ll be a lot of fun,” she shared with E! News in November. “It’s gonna be a nontraditional wedding because that’s Rex and me. We like comfort, we love friends, we love food.”
And while they are excited about getting married, Rex shared that the two aren’t rushing down the aisle just yet.
“What we’re doing right now honestly is enjoying our engagement time,” Rex explained to E!. “We haven’t set a date, we’re just going to enjoy our engagement and enjoy going to Happy’s Place every day.”
