Conan O’Brien says he was “in shock” after learning of Rob and Michele Reiner‘s death, which came only a day after he’d seen the couple at his 2025 holiday party.
Filmmaker Reiner – known for classics including This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and A Few Good Men – was found murdered alongside his wife, 70-year-old photographer Michele Singer Reiner, in their Los Angeles home on December 14.
In a new profile by The New Yorker, O’Brien spoke about his friendship with the two, and said he was left reeling after learning of their deaths. “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” he said.
“My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people. And to have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone… I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward.
“I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very – it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”
After the news of their deaths broke, it was revealed that Rob and Michele attended a gathering hosted by O’Brien on December 13. As The Hollywood Reporter previously shared, the Reiners had asked if their son Nick could attend the event, and while there, he was said to have got into a verbal argument with Bill Hader, and the family left the party. Rob and Michele were found dead the next day.
O’Brien continued: “And I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there — and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend.”
A day after the couple’s bodies were found, their 32-year-old son Nick Reiner was arrested in connection with their deaths, and he has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with “special circumstances”. His charges could carry a life sentence or the death penalty under California law.
Their death certificates state that their deaths were due to “multiple sharp force injuries”, with circumstances described as “homicide”, “with knife, by another”.
Tributes poured in for Reiner after the news broke late last year, with the likes of Jack Black, Jane Fonda, Stephen King, Barack and Michelle Obama, Paul McCartney and Meg Ryan all penning moving odes to the late filmmaker.
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