Country music star Reba McEntire has long navigated a public life marked by professional triumphand personal tragedy. But perhaps no chapter of her story better illustrates how she has chosen to handle loss than her decades-long connection to the Blackstock family—a bond that survived divorce, lawsuits, illness, and even death. In August 2015, McEntire and her husband of 26 years, Narvel Blackstock, announced their separation. Blackstock had not merely been her spouse; he had been her business partner for roughly 35 years, beginning asa steel guitar player in her band before rising to tour manager and eventually becoming her career manager as well.
Together they built Starstruck Entertainment, an entertainment management company that handled her career and later other major artists. McEntire later said the divorce was not her idea. “It wasn’t my idea to get a divorce,” she told CMT in March 2016. “I didn’t want it in any form or fashion.
” She likened the decision to her father’s old saying: “I’ll take my marbles and go play somewhere else. ”
The marriage had also blended two families. When they wed in1989, McEntire became stepmother to Blackstock’s three children froma previous marriage: Chassidy, Shawna, and Brandon. In1990, the couple welcomed their only child together, Shelby.
Years after her divorce from Blackstock, McEntire continued to callBrandon her stepson and “son. ” Brandon followed his father into entertainment, eventually managing Kelly Clarkson, whom he married in2013. The couple had two childrenbefore Clarkson filed for divorce inJune 2020. A public and contentious legal battle followed, centering in part on whether Brandon had violaten California’s talent agency law by procuring work for Clarkson without the required license.
In2023, California’s Labor Commissioner found that Brandon had indeed unlawfully procured certain work opportunities for Clarkson, ordering Starstruck entities to repay more than$2. 6 million in commissions. Starstruck appealed. McEntire was not a party to that litigation.
Notably, her friendship with Clarkson survived the divorce and legal turmoil. “She’s afriend of mine,” McEntire had previously said, describing Clarkson as part of her family. Then came the family’s greatest trial: Brandon’s private, multi-year battle with cancer. OnAugust6, 2025, Clarkson announced she was postponing remaining dates of her Las Vegas residency because the father of her children was ill.
The next day, August7, the Blackstock family announced Brandon had died at age48. The Silver Bow County coroner later determined melanoma was the causeof death, saying Brandon died peacefully athome in Butte, Montana, surrounded byfamily. McEntire publicly mourned him asa son, sharinga photo and expressing gratitude for the time they had together. In the year before Brandon’s death, McEntire had reportedly grown closer tothe Blackstock family again.
Asource told Us Weekly that she spent more time with family than insome prior yearsand that the group had truly come together. Earlier in2025, she had even flown Blackstock family members to Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo alongside herown performance, turning the trip into a family gathering. After Brandon’s death, another development surfaced: Narvel Blackstock had remarried. In April2024, reports emerged that Blackstock married Laura Putty Stroud,aNashville real estate agent, ata ceremony at The Hermitage Nashville, reportedly blessed by Blake Shelton and attended by Shelby, Reba’s son.
Reports indicated Laura had been a social acquaintance of Reba’s before any romantic link to Narvel became public. In2014, while Reba was still married to Narvel, she and Laura were photographed together ata Katy Perry event, and Reba even shared a photo of them wearing colorful wigs. Laura had also reportedly spent time with Reba’s family, including attending Shelby’s races. This pre-existing social overlap fueled speculation about when Narvel and Laura’s relationship truly began, thoughno credible evidence emerged confirming an affair before the marriage ended.
Neither Reba nor Narvel ever publicly confirmed any pre-divorce relationship as fact. When asked about the remarriage, Reba reportedly responded with characteristic grace, declining to attack either party publicly and instead maintaining distance while preserving family bonds where possible. . McEntire herself has since moved forward.
She has been engaged since Christmas Eve2024, when Rex Linn proposed during a walk on their Tennessee farm. The couple, who met in1991 but only became romantically involved in2020, have postponed their wedding repeatedly due to work commitments, including their television series “Happy’s Place. ”” Reba has said the celebration will be simple, surrounded by family, friends, and pets, and may span several days rather than one traditional day. Through decades of loss—the death of most of her band ina plane crash, the end of her marriage, the dissolution of her professional partnership, and the death of Brandon—McEntire has consistently chosen preservation over destruction.
She kept ties with stepchildren, maintained friendships across divides, and refused to let divorce erase decades of family bonds. As she once put it regarding her approach to life’s hardest blows:“I’ll take my marbles and go play somewhere else. ” In her case, that meant continuing to play—on her own terms, without letting the past define her future.
For McEntire, the final measure was notin what she lost, but in what she chose to keep: her family, her friends, her dignity, and her capacity to beginning again.
