Conan O’Brien says he was “in shock” when he learned of Rob and Michele Reiner‘s death after seeing them at his 2025 holiday party the night before the couple was found dead.
In a Friday profile with The New Yorker, the upcoming 2026 Oscars host spoke about his bond with the Reiners, who were found dead in their home on Dec. 14. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with their murder.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot. 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,” O’Brien said. “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 death, it was revealed that Rob and Michele attended a holiday party hosted by O’Brien on Dec. 13. As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, the Reiners asked if Nick could attend the event, and there, he got into a verbal argument with Bill Hader, and the family left the party. Rob and Michele were found dead the next day.
He 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.”
Rob and Michele died from “multiple sharp force injuries” in a double homicide, the Los Angeles Medical Examiner announced three days after they were found dead.
The Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast host went on to commend Reiner’s legacy on the entertainment industry. He noted, “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. 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. With Spinal Tap alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously,” O’Brein continued. “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.
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