Rob Reiner made efforts to help his son in the years leading up to the director and his wife’s sad death, with Rob and son Nick making a movie about their family troubles and addiction
09:23, 16 Dec 2025Updated 23:25, 16 Dec 2025
Rob and son Nick took their movie to the Toronto International Film Festival(Image: FilmMagic)
Doting father Rob Reiner made efforts to help his troubled son before his and wife Michele Singer Reiner’s shocking deaths. The Hollywood director and his wife were found dead in their home, with their son Nick being charged for first degree murder of the pair. It has not yet been decided whether the District Attorney’s Office will pursue the death penalty.
It has been reported that Nick and Rob argued at a party hosted by an American chat show host Conan O’Brien hours before the tragedy. Reports in the US say the couple both had their throats slashed following an alleged row, with claims suggesting the pair were found dead in bed.
Before his passing, Rob took time out of his busy career to direct a movie which was written by his son Nick about their family troubles. The movie, which was called Being Charlie, documented Nick’s struggles with drug addiction and homelessness.
Rob Reiner and his son Nick Reiner made a movie about his past struggles(Image: WireImage)
The script was penned by Nick and his friend Matt Elisofon, who he met in rehab. It follows the story of a fictional version of the family, with dad Rob even taking a starring role, playing a celebrity actor who is now running for governor in the movie.
At the end of the movie, Rob’s character apologises to Nick’s, something which the real-life actor and director stated had happened and was owed to his boy.
Nick is being held in custody in Los Angeles after being arrested on Monday. Nick was met by police at a Los Angeles subway station in Exposition Park, 15 miles from his parents’ mansion in Brentwood. In a press conference on Tuesday evening, UK time, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said Nick was “taken into custody without issue”.
It was reported that Nick had earlier checked in to The Pierside Santa Monica, where staff allegedly discovered a shower ‘full of blood’ and a trail leading off of his bed, as well as a window, which was covered up by bedsheets.
It had been expected that Nick was to be appear in court to be charged with killing his parents on Tuesday. However, Nick’s defence attorney Alan Jackson confirmed to reporters outside the court in the morning that his client would not be making his first court appearance on Tuesday because he hadn’t been medically cleared.
In a video published on TMZ, Jackson said: “Every inmate has to be medically cleared before they can be transported to court. He has not been medically cleared, it is just a procedural issue.”.
It’s claimed Nick had previously been to rehab at least 18 times in the early years of his lengthy struggle with drug addiction.
The bodies of Rob and Michele were discovered by their daughter Romy, who allegedly went to the property when a masseuse booked in to visit the couple told her there was no answer at the door. Romy is said to have raised the alarm with police and told them that a family member “should be a suspect” as they were “dangerous”.
Rob and Michele had previously admitted that they didn’t always listen to their own son and Michele said they were “influenced” by others. Speaking to the LA Times at the Toronto International Film Festival at the time of the movie’s premiere, Rob said: “When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”
Being Charlie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival(Image: Rock Castle Entertainment)
Rob and Michele were found dead in their home(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking about her own experiences, Michele added: “We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.”
Nick spoke of his own struggles, sharing: “I got sick of it. I got sick of doing that …. I come from a nice family. I’m not supposed to be out there on the streets and in homeless shelters doing all these things.”
In a separate interview in 2016, Nick said that he was sent to rehab around his 15th birthday but refused to go back many times after that. He said: “If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless.”
Rob said “tough love” wasn’t in his nature. He added: “If your kid is going through rough times, as the parent, your main job is to keep your child safe. So I would do anything. At the end of the day, I know my child better than an expert does and I probably should have trusted my own instinct and that’s one of the things I did learn about the whole experience.”
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