{"id":481375,"date":"2026-02-21T06:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481375\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T06:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T06:26:07","slug":"conan-obrien-breaks-silence-over-killing-of-rob-and-michele-reiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481375\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien breaks silence over killing of Rob and Michele Reiner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hours before filmmaking legend Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were found stabbed to death<\/a> in their Brentwood home, they attended a holiday party<\/a> at Conan O\u2019Brien\u2019s house. <\/p>\n

Now, two months after the tragedy, the comedian has broken his silence about the death of his good friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they\u2019re gone … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward,\u201d O\u2019Brien said in an interview for \u201cThe New Yorker Radio Hour<\/a>\u201d podcast. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s no other word for it. It\u2019s just very \u2014 it\u2019s so awful. It\u2019s just so awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As host of the Dec. 13 party, O\u2019Brien was among the last people to see the Reiners alive. Their 32-year-old son, Nick, was arrested the following night and charged with murdering his parents. Two sources who attended the party described witnessing a loud verbal exchange between Nick Reiner and his parents.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> published Friday, O\u2019Brien said he and his wife were very close with the couple, describing them as \u201cjust such lovely people.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien praised Rob Reiner\u2019s talent as a director and his tireless advocacy efforts. The \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally …\u201d director was a prominent Democratic donor, noted critic of President Trump and a champion for causes such as early childhood education and gay marriage. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there \u2014 and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend,\u201d O\u2019Brien told The New Yorker.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said he considers Reiner \u201cone of the greats\u201d given his impressive track record of directing a series of blockbuster movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make seven \u2014 in, like, a nine-year, 10-year, 11-year period \u2014 is insanity,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWith \u2018Spinal Tap\u2019 alone, if that\u2019d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien fondly recalled first watching the rock mockumentary \u201cThis is Spinal Tap\u201d in college, calling it a \u201csplitting-the-atom moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair were not only friends, but also collaborators. Reiner was a guest on a 1999 episode of \u201cLate Night with Conan O\u2019Brien,\u201d and also appeared on episodes of O\u2019Brien\u2019s podcast, \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend,\u201d in 2023 and 2025. <\/p>\n

Authorities allege Nick Reiner fatally stabbed his 78-year-old father and 70-year-old mother at their Brentwood home sometime in the early morning hours of Dec. 14. The couple\u2019s bodies were discovered in the master bedroom by their daughter around 12 hours later, and Nick Reiner was arrested that night in South L.A. by Los Angeles police. <\/p>\n

Nick Reiner was charged with<\/a> two counts of first-degree murder on Dec. 16 and has yet to enter a plea. In January, his arraignment was postponed to Monday after his lawyer, famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, stepped down and was replaced<\/a> by a public defender. <\/p>\n

Nick Reiner has a history of struggles with mental health and substance use<\/a>. It is unclear how prominently those struggles will feature in criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

Times staff writers James Queally and Richard Winton contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours before filmmaking legend Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[16237,6271,16457,88,31927,221988,173388,221986,37914,3381,4281,174988,18324,175478,221987,12280],"class_list":{"0":"post-481375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-conan-obrien","9":"tag-dec","10":"tag-director","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-episode","13":"tag-filmmaking-legend-rob-reiner","14":"tag-good-friend","15":"tag-holiday-party","16":"tag-hour","17":"tag-interview","18":"tag-los-angeles-times","19":"tag-michele-reiner","20":"tag-nick","21":"tag-rob","22":"tag-silence","23":"tag-struggle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}