Conan O’Brien Speaks Out About Hosting Rob & Michele Reiner Hours Before Their Deaths
What To Know
- Conan O’Brien reflected on the shock and grief of being one of the last people to see Rob and Michele Reiner before their deaths, which occurred just hours after they attended his holiday party.
- Rob and Michele Reiner were found dead the day after the party, and their son Nick was later charged with first-degree murder in connection with their deaths.
- O’Brien praised Rob Reiner’s influential film career and lamented the sudden loss of his impactful voice in both the entertainment industry and public discourse.
Conan O’Brien was one of the last people to see filmmaker Rob Reiner and wife, Michele Reiner, before their deaths, and the comedian says it’s “so awful” contending with the loss.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” O’Brien said on The New Yorker Radio Hour in the podcast’s February 20 episode. “My wife [Liza] and I were seeing them a lot. To have that experience of saying goodnight to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone…”
The Reiners attended O’Brien’s holiday party with their son, Nick Reiner, on December 13, 2025, according to the Los Angeles Times. Sources told the newspaper that Nick had gotten into a fight with Rob and Michele at the party and was acting strangely that night.
The following afternoon, Rob and Michele were discovered dead in their home in Los Angeles’ Brentwood neighborhood, and days later, Nick was later charged with counts of first-degree murder, according to The New York Times.
“I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward,” O’Brien added in the podcast interview. “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.”
O’Brien, who’s gearing up to host the 2026 Academy Awards, said Rob and his father, comedian Carl Reiner, were larger than life.
“I mean, I just keep mulling over … the body of work,” he added. “It’s seven movies that Rob Reiner made, in quick succession, that are classics. … 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 [This Is] 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.”
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