Conan O’Brien has opened up about the final time he saw Rob and Michele Reiner at his holiday party – just hours before their murders last year.
Reiner, 78, and his wife, 70, were found stabbed to death inside their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on December 14.
Later that night, their son Nick, 32, was arrested and held without bail. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the days that followed and has since pleaded not guilty.
Afterwards, it was reported that all three Reiners attended O’Brien’s December 13 holiday party, where the filmmaker and his son were involved in a ‘very loud argument.’
O’Brien, who previously spoke of the ‘awful killings’, told THR of his immense sadness at the loss of his friends and his feelings at being ‘dragged into’ the coverage of the tragedies.
‘Very simply, we had a party, we invited our really good friends and then, the next day, this terrible thing happened,’ says O’Brien.
Conan O’Brien has opened up about the final time he saw Rob and Michele Reiner at his holiday party – just hours before their murders last year; O’Brien and Reiner pictured in 2024
Reiner, 78, and his wife, 70, were found dead inside their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on December 14 – pictured in 2019
Later that night, their son Nick, 32, was arrested and held without bail. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the days that followed; Nick pictured in 2025
‘Whatever difficulties my wife and I have experienced having our name attached to it are nothing compared to the scale of the tragedy for the family and the loss of Rob and Michele.
‘If you’re a known person, your name is going to get dragged into things sometimes, but it is not a hardship. There is only sadness that they’re gone.’
O’Brien is set to host the 2026 Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15 and is widely rumored to be paying tribute to the legendary director.
Last month, the host told the New Yorker of the murders: ‘It’s just so awful.
‘I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them,’ he said, adding that he and his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, ‘were seeing them a lot.’
‘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. I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward. I mean, there’s no other word for it.’
‘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,’ O’Brien added.
O’Brien also praised Reiner’s incredible body of work.
O’Brien, who previously spoke of the ‘awful killings’ told THR of his immense sadness at the loss of his friends. ‘Very simply, we had a party, we invited our really good friends and then, the next day, this terrible thing happened,’ says O’Brien
Later, it was reported that all three Reiners attended O’Brien’s December 13 holiday party, where the filmmaker and his son were involved in a ‘very loud argument’; Reiner seen with Nick in 2016
‘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. 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 concluded that though he doesn’t often dwell on death, the recent losses of the Reiners as well as actress Catherine O’Hara have hit hard.
‘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.’
In December, the Daily Mail reported exclusively that O’Brien stopped a friend from calling 911 during an explosive fight between Reiner and Nick at the comedian’s Christmas party, guests have revealed.
Nick is said to have been behaving erratically all evening, but one source familiar with the party has now told the Daily Mail the spat grew so intense that at least one guest suggested calling the cops to intervene.
‘They got in an argument, the father and son. It got so bad and loud someone wanted to call the police to report it,’ the insider claimed.
‘But Conan stepped in and said, “It’s my house, my party, I’m not calling the police.” He talked them out of calling the police.’
A source close to the Los Angeles Police Department said there were no 911 calls from O’Brien’s house that night.
TMZ first reported that Reiner had had a ‘very loud argument’ with his son at the holiday party, after which the legendary movie director and his wife left.
The Reiners had reportedly brought Nick to the star-studded event to ‘keep an eye on him.’
Nick had been living in the Reiners’ guesthouse at their Brentwood mansion, after years of substance abuse issues, at least 18 stints in rehab and some periods of homelessness.
Sources have also told TMZ that he was suffering with worsening schizophrenia and became ‘erratic and dangerous’ when doctors changed his medication weeks before the tragedy.
Guests at the A-list packed party say Nick displayed ‘antisocial behavior’, such as staring at attendees and repeatedly ‘asking people if they were famous,’ according to reports.
Nick, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, is now being held without bail; Pictured in a court sketch on December 17
A source told NBC News that at one point Nick ‘interrupted’ comedian Bill Hader, who then told Reiner’s son that he was ‘in the middle of a private conversation’ – prompting an angry outburst.
‘Nick just stood there and stared before storming off,’ the witness said.
Hours later, Reiner and his wife were found dead at their home.
Their bodies were discovered around 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon by their youngest daughter Romy, 27, who lives across the street from her parents’ property.
Nick, who lived in his parents’ guest house, was arrested around 9pm Sunday night 15 miles away.
He had earlier checked in to The Pierside Santa Monica hotel, where staff reportedly later discovered a shower ‘full of blood’, a trail of blood leading off of his bed and bedsheets covering the windows.
Nick, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, is now being held without bail.
