- - Rob Reiner, Wife Michele 'Tried Everything' to Help Son Nick Before They Died In 'Nightmare' Murder (Exclusive Sources)

Eric AnderssonDecember 16, 2025 at 10:00 AM

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Rob Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner (left); Rob Reiner on the cover of PEOPLE. -

In PEOPLE's new cover story, sources open up about the aftermath of Rob Reiner and wife Michele's horrific murders

The couple's troubled son Nick, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, has had "struggles" that are "so deep," according to one insider

For years before they died, the couple, say sources, tried to help their son to no avail

As a director, Rob Reiner made the kinds of movies that became quotable classics like 1987’s The Princess Bride and and 1989’s When Harry Met Sally….

But in 2016, the actor-turned-filmmaker — whose bushy beard and jolly demeanor often earned him comparisons to Santa Claus — veered into more personal territory with Being Charlie, co-written by his son Nick Reiner, now 32.

The movie, about a teen struggling with addiction, echoed some of Nick’s self-described “dark years” after he started to use drugs at a young age. In a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, Rob and Nick — who had cycled in and out of upwards of 18 rehabs and sometimes lived on the streets — described their fraught dynamic and how making the movie brought them closer.

“It forced us to look at what each other was going through,” said Rob. “Our relationship is better now than it was, and it’s got places to go.”

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Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in 2023.

What happened almost a decade later is unthinkable. On Sunday, Dec. 14, the former All in the Family star and his wife of 36 years, Michele, a photographer turned producer, were found stabbed to death at their 10,000 sq.ft. home in L.A.’s Brentwood area, an idyllic neighborhood known for its stately homes and tidy lawns.

Multiple sources who spoke with family members told PEOPLE in the wake of the tragedy that Nick killed Rob, 78, and Michele, 70. Their daughter Romy, 28, who lives nearby, found them and paramedics rushed to the home around 3:30 p.m. One source with knowledge of the situation describes the site of the murders as a “Hollywood horror-scene nightmare.”

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The scene outside of the Reiner residence on Dec. 14.

The next day, the LAPD confirmed Nick — who had been living with his parents, a second source says — had been arrested on suspicion of murder after being taken into custody at 9:15 p.m the night of the killings.

At press time Nick, who was being held without bail, had not yet been charged or entered a plea. Authorities did not provide a motive, but a third source says Rob and Nick got into a heated argument at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party the night before, while a fourth insider notes Nick’s erratic behavior at the gathering was “freaking everyone out.” Less than 24 hours later, Rob and Michele were dead.

Nick Reiner on Sept. 9.

As the horrific news quickly spread through Hollywood, the Reiner family — Rob and Michele were also parents to son Jake, 34, and Rob had daughter Tracy, 61, from his first marriage to late actor-director Penny Marshall — said in a statement they are “heartbroken by this sudden loss.”

Friends and loved ones across Hollywood struggled to make sense of the news as they paid tribute to the Reiners, both passionate civil rights advocates. “This is most tragic for two extraordinary people who gave so much to make this a better world,” said Michael Douglas, who worked with Rob on the 1995 movie The American President. “Rob and Michele will be deeply missed.”

Rob Reiner on the cover of PEOPLE.

And Jerry O’Connell, who was just 11 when he costarred in Rob’s 1986 movie Stand By Me, called the situation “devastating,” adding about Rob, “I feel like a parent has passed. He was a special human being. A kind soul.”

The son of TV pioneer Carl Reiner and actress-singer Estelle Lebost, Rob was born in New York City in 1947. The family moved to Beverly Hills when Rob was 12, and after he attended UCLA, he followed his parents into show business.

He broke out as Michael Stivic — aka Meathead — in 1971 on the envelope-pushing sitcom All in the Family. (It was the same year he wed future Laverne & Shirley actress Marshall.)

Playing the liberal son-in-law of Carroll O’Connor’s grumpy and bigoted Archie Bunker earned Rob two Emmys. “It was obviously a great show and I loved doing it,” he told PEOPLE earlier this year, “but it was a stepping stone.”

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Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner in 2019.

Indeed, Rob had wanted to direct since he was a teenager. On All in the Family. “I was looking at the other actors, where the cameras were,” he said. “So it’s not the best way to act. You’re supposed to focus on what you’re doing.”

His directorial debut, the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (which he also cowrote and costarred in) became a comedy cult classic.

He went on to direct some of the most memorable films of the ’80s and ’90s, including The Princess Bride. “What I remember most is the joy that he had,” says Carol Kane, who played the witchy Valerie. “He was one of the few directors I've ever worked with who couldn't stop laughing when we were rolling.”

While making When Harry Met Sally…, Rob, who had split from Marshall in 1981, was introduced to his future wife, Michele Singer, a photographer who had stopped by the set. “I look over and I see this girl, and ‘Whoo!’ I was attracted immediately,” he told The New York Times in 1989, the year he wed Michele.

The couple collaborated at different times over the course of their marriage. Michele served as a producer on movies her husband made, including 2017's political drama Shock and Awe, and this year’s sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

Rob also credited Michele with inspiring his activism, like their work for marriage equality and universal access to preschool. “Basically,” he quipped in 2010, "my wife made me a person."

Behind the scenes, Rob and Michele privately dealt with Nick’s addiction. When he learned their son started using drugs when he was 14, Rob said he “overreacted” by immediately sending Nick to a treatment center.

The Reiners came to regret forcing Nick — who admitted he grew “angry” at his parents — into programs, they said.

Time — and candid conversations — seemed to have healed the rift at the time Rob made Being Charlie. “I used to harbor a lot of ill will toward them,” Nick told PEOPLE in 2016, “but it’s diminished to almost zero.”

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Jake Reiner, Nick Reiner, Romy Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner and Rob Reiner in 2024

But by the next year, Nick was back on a destructive path. In a 2018 interview on the Dopey podcast, he revealed he trashed his parents’ guest house the year prior while high. “I got totally spun out on uppers — I think it was coke and something else — and I was up for days on end,” he said. “I started punching out different things in my guest house…started with the TV and then I went over to the lamp…everything in the guest house got wrecked.”

But the Reiners remained close despite Nick’s serious struggles. The kids stepped out to events alongside Rob and Michele, including the Sept. 9 premiere of Spinal Tap II.

“They were such a tight-knit family. They did everything together,” says a source connected to the Reiners. Still, “they could never reach stability with Nick. They tried everything — giving him space, keeping him close — but his struggles are so deep. It’s just a parent’s worst nightmare.”

“They were such lovely people," adds another insider, "and tried in every way to help their son.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”