{"id":176936,"date":"2026-02-23T20:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/176936\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:39:17","slug":"conan-obrien-breaks-silence-on-reiner-murders-following-his-holiday-party-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/176936\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien breaks silence on Reiner murders following his holiday party \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conan O\u2019Brien, whose holiday party was reportedly the site of several confrontations involving Nick Reiner in the hours before police say he murdered his parents, has broken his silence more than two months after the brutal slayings.<\/p>\n

Nick, 32, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of his father, director Rob Reiner, and mother, producer Michele Singer Reiner, who were found dead at their home on Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

The night prior, the couple \u2014 who also shared son Jake, 34, and daughter Romy, 28 \u2014 attended O\u2019Brien\u2019s holiday party with Nick, who a source previously told People was \u201cfreaking everyone out [and] acting crazy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

At one point, Nick made a scene when he rudely interrupted a discussion comedian Bill Hader was having\u00a0with another guest at the party, an insider told NBC News. When the \u201cSNL\u201d alum told Nick the conversation was private, the latter reportedly froze and stared before \u201cstorming off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick also got into a \u201cvery loud argument\u201d with his father<\/a> at the party, according to TMZ. Rob and Michele eventually left the event due to Nick\u2019s concerning behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have that experience of saying goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they\u2019re gone\u2026 I think I was in shock for quite a while<\/a> afterward,\u201d O\u2019Brien said in an extensive interview with The New Yorker on Friday. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s no other word for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE – Rob Reiner, right, and wife Michele Singer Reiner attend the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini\/Invision\/AP, File)\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said he\u2019d known Rob and Michele for a while but that he and his wife, Liza Powel O\u2019Brien, had gotten increasingly closer with the couple in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I were seeing them a lot,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThey were just such lovely people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former late-night host also went on to praise Rob Reiner\u2019s work as a director, crediting his 1984 mockumentary, \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap,\u201d with having \u201cinfluenced my generation enormously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s seven movies that Rob Reiner made, in quick succession, that are classics,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI think if you can make one great movie, that\u2019s impressive. It\u2019s an almost impossible feat. To make two means you\u2019re one of the greats. To make seven in like a nine-year, 10-year, 11-year period is insanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NickNick Reiner arrives at the premiere of \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues\u201d on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell\/Invision\/AP)\u00a0<\/p>\n

If convicted in his parents\u2019 murders, Nick Reiner faces life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. He has not yet formally entered a plea, though he\u2019s expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.<\/p>\n

Nick has battled substance abuse since adolescence and reportedly suffers from schizoaffective disorder, which resulted in a mental health conservatorship for over a year, ending in 2021. A change in medications shortly before the killings reportedly made him \u201cagitated, erratic and increasingly dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heart of his defense may hinge on allegations that his doctors didn\u2019t attempt to place him on a psychiatric hold amid the shift in medication, despite his concerning behavior.<\/p>\n

His former attorney, Alan Jackson, withdrew from the case in January, but has still insisted that Nick is \u201cnot guilty of murder.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien, whose holiday party was reportedly the site of several confrontations involving Nick Reiner in the hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,6980,27594,16612,3607,16611,2631,223,69,2819,65944],"class_list":{"0":"post-176936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-coffee-break","13":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-morning-wire","16":"tag-national-news","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-things-to-do","19":"tag-tv","20":"tag-tv-streaming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}