Conan O’Brien Breaks Silence About Deaths of Rob Reiner, Wife Michele
(UPI) — Comedian Conan O’Brien has broken his silence regarding the shocking fatal stabbings of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele at their Brentwood, Calif., home, allegedly at the hands of their troubled son, Nick.
The trio had attended a holiday party at O’Brien’s house just hours before the dead bodies of Rob and Michele were discovered on Dec. 14, 2025.
Nick, who has suffered from mental health and substance abuse issues for years, is now behind bars awaiting trial for their murders.
“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 told The New Yorker magazine this week.
“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 lauded Rob for his talent and influence in making a string of hits such as Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, An American President and A Few Good Men.
“If you can make one great movie, that’s impressive. It’s almost an impossible feat. To make two means that you’re one of the greats. To make seven — in, like, a nine-year, ten-year, eleven-year period — is insanity,” he said.
“With [This is] Spinal Tap alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously,” he added. “It was like a splitting-the-atom moment. You have those moments where you see something truly remarkable.”
O’Brien will host the Oscars on March 15.