Reba McEntire fell in love with and married steer-wrestling champion Charlie Battles before she reached country music stardom!
On June 21, 1976, budding country music star Reba McEntire, 21, married 31-year-old steer-wrestling champion Charlie Battles. At the time of their wedding, the rodeo star was a divorced father of two young sons, Lance and Coty Battles. Before she became the “Queen of Country,” she experienced a significant chapter in her life with her first husband, Charlie Battles.
Reba Nell McEntire was born on March 28, 1955, in McAlester, Oklahoma. She grew up in a ranching family where rodeo was a way of life. Her father, Clark McEntire, was a champion steer roper, and Reba initially followed in those footsteps, competing in barrel racing while nurturing a love for singing.
Reba’s journey to stardom began in the mid-1970s when her talent caught the attention of country music enthusiasts. While she was building her music career, Reba met Charlie Battles, a steer wrestler and rancher from Oklahoma, who would become her first husband.
Charlie Battles was a rugged, charismatic figure in the rodeo circuit. Born in 1945, Battles was ten years older than Reba. He had established himself as a competitive steer wrestler and shared Reba’s passion for the rodeo lifestyle. The two met in the mid-1970s and quickly bonded over their shared interests.
Reba and Charlie married in 1976, marking the beginning of a new chapter in Reba’s personal and professional life. The couple lived on a ranch in Stringtown, Oklahoma, where Reba balanced her budding music career with the demands of ranch life.
“I loved Charlie with all my heart, I wanted to marry him… We had a lot of fun,” McEntire shared in a past interview with PEOPLE. “We rodeoed together, we ranched together.”
Besides being newly married and adjusting to being the stepmother, Reba was also starting her own country music career. Her single, “I Don’t Want to be a One Night Stand,” reached No. 88 on the Billboard country charts. The next year, she released her self-titled debut album. And in 1982, her single, “Can’t Even Get the Blues No More,” reached No. 1.
In 1984, Reba signed with MCA in order to take more control of her music and career. Her My Kind of Country album was a hit and solidified her position as a country music star.
By the early 1980s, cracks in their relationship had become evident. Reba’s ambition and Charlie’s more traditional outlook on their life together created tension. In 1987, after 11 years of marriage, Reba and Charlie divorced.
The divorce was a pivotal moment for Reba, both personally and professionally. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to fully immerse herself in her music career, which reached new heights in the years that followed. Reflecting on her first marriage, Reba has often spoken about how the experience taught her valuable lessons about independence and self-discovery.
As Reba’s career was taking off, Charlie’s attitude towards her growing success became clear. According to her book Reba: My Story, Charlie put his interests above hers and shared little enthusiasm about what she did for a living.
On top of that, Reba never felt included when it came to Charlie and his children. She recalled one day when her husband wouldn’t let her come along when they set out to to feed their cattle, something she and Charlie always did together. According the star, instead of saying he needed alone time with his sons, he said there was no room for her, and drove off.
Things came to a head when Reba decided to include her husband in helping with her band. Unfortunately, Charlie did not get along well with the band members and made the whole environment stressful.
Reba quickly grew tired of his domineering ways and his habit of taking money from her without permission. Charlie’s escalating anger and ongoing incidents pushed the star to divorce him in 1987. After leaving their Oklahoma ranch behind, Reba relocated to Nashville, Tennessee.
Following their divorce, Charlie Battles stayed out of the spotlight, returning to his ranching roots. He later remarried Donna Granger in 1998 and continued his life in Oklahoma. Sadly, Charlie suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006 and passed away in 2013 at the age of 68.
Reba later married Narvel Blackstock in 1989 (divorced in 2015).