Conan O’Brien broke his silence on Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths after the filmmaker clashed with son Nick at the comedian’s holiday party hours before the murders.
‘It’s just so awful,’ O’Brien, 62, said in an interview with The New Yorker, published on Friday.
‘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.
Reiner, 78, and his wife, 70, were found dead inside their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on December 14.
Conan O’Brien, 62, broke his silence on Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths after the filmmaker clashed with son Nick at the comedian’s holiday party hours before the murders
‘It’s just so awful,’ O’Brien said in an interview with The New Yorker, published on Friday; Reiner and his wife 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.
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.’
In his latest interview the Oscars host also praised Reiner’s incredible 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. 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.’
‘I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country… and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend,’ O’Brien added; 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
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
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.
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
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, Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead at their home.
Their bodies were discovered on around 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon by their youngest daughter Romy, 27, who lives across the street from her parents’ property.
The couple were found in bed with their throats cut and may have been asleep when they were murdered in the early hours of the morning, a source close to the investigation claimed to the Daily Mail.
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.
