Conan O’Brien broke his silence about the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, after the late director got into an argument with his son Nick Reiner at the comedian’s holiday party the night before the murders.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” O’Brien, 62, told David Remnick in an interview for The New Yorker, which was published on Friday, February 20. “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 goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone.”
He continued: “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. 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.”
In the same interview, it was mentioned that Rob made a posthumous appearance in the Judd Apatow–directed documentary Mel Brooks: 99 Year Old Man released in January. Brooks, 99, was best friends and collaborators with Rob’s dad, Carl Reiner. Carl died at age 98 in June 2020. In the doc, Rob offered commentary on his dad’s friendship with Brooks and how Brooks continued to be there for the Reiner family after Carl’s death. Remnick told O’Brien that Rob seemed “relatively young and so vibrant and alive” in the doc before his life tragically ended.
“These people are so larger than life, especially if you’ve grown up watching them or appreciating their work. I mean, I just keep mulling over … the body of work, I think it’s seven movies that Rob Reiner made, in quick succession, that are classics,” O’Brien continued, reflecting on his friends’ deaths. “Now, if you can make one great movie, that’s impressive. It’s an almost impossible feat. To make two means that you’re one of the greats. To make seven — in, like, a nine-year, 10-year, 11-year period — is insanity.”
O’Brien noted, “With Spinal Tap alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously. Spinal Tap — when it came out, I was in college, and it was like a splitting-the-atom moment. You have those moments where you see something truly remarkable.”
The TV host admitted death wasn’t something he thought about often, but heartbreaking tragedies like this flip his world upside down.
“It is something you don’t think about — if you’re lucky, you don’t think about it for the first couple of decades of your life — and then it’s people saying, ‘Did you hear?’ And you walk around concussed for a week. So that’s what it is now, I guess,” O’Brien concluded of Rob and Michele’s deaths, also acknowledging the recent death of actress Catherine O’Hara. (O’Hara died on January 30 at age 71 from a pulmonary embolism with rectal cancer listed as an underlying cause.)
Rob and Michele were found dead in their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles in December 2025. Later that night, Nick, 32, was arrested and held without bail. He was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder days later.
After news broke of Rob and Michele’s deaths, TMZ reported that Rob and Nick got into a “very loud argument” at O’Brien’s Christmas party and other attendees overheard the fight.
A source confirmed to Us Weekly that Rob and Michele attended O’Brien’s party with Nick the night before their bodies were discovered. Nick allegedly acted “creepily” at the event before leaving, per the insider.
“Nick was going up to people at Conan O’Brien’s party asking if they were famous,” the source added.
Conan O’Brien, Rob Reiner, Nick Reiner. Getty Images (3)
Meanwhile, NBC News reported that Nick also had an uncomfortable encounter with Bill Hader at the party when he allegedly interrupted the Saturday Night Live alum’s conversation. According to the outlet, Hader, 47, told Nick the discussion was private, and Nick subsequently stood still and stared at him before “storming off.”
The following day, the Reiners’ family confirmed their deaths in a statement to Variety.
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” a family spokesperson said at the time. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”
Nick made his first court appearance since his arrest later that month, wearing a suicide prevention vest in the courtroom. He chose not to enter a plea at the time since his attorney Alan Jackson claimed it was “too early” in the process to do so. The following month, Nick returned to the courtroom. However, once Jackson announced during the hearing that he was stepping away from the case, Nick’s arraignment was postponed.
Rob and Michele Singer Reiner made numerous public appearances — and plans with several celebrity friends — in the days leading up to their murders. Us Weekly confirmed on Monday, December 15 that Rob, 78, and Michele, 68, died from “apparent stab wounds,” according to the Los Angeles police. Their shocking deaths came as a […]
After the first hearing, Rob and Michele’s other children, Jake, 34, and Romy, 27, released a new statement about their parents’ deaths.
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day. The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” the statement said. “They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
Jake and Romy added: “We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life.”
The siblings then alluded to their brother’s criminal case, requesting that the public treat the situation sensitively.
The statement concluded: “We now ask for respect and privacy, for speculation to be tempered with compassion and humanity and for our parents to be remembered for the incredible lives they lived and the love they gave.”
Nick is expected to enter a plea during his Monday, February 23, arraignment.
