Rob Reiner’s oldest son Jake Reiner, 35, opened up about losing “more than half” of his family following his brother Nick’s arrest on suspicion of brutally murdering their parents, legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner.
Nick Reiner, 32, is being held pending trial for the murders at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in February and is expected to return to court for a pretrial hearing on September 15.
His arrest came just six hours after his younger sister Romy Reiner, 28, discovered their parents’ bodies with stab wounds at their Brentwood home in December.
Neither sibling has commented on the charges against Nick until Jake’s interview on Thursday, which will premiere in full on KABC-TV’s evening news.
“Romy told me our dad was dead,” Jake Reiner said, recalling his sister’s harrowing December phone call. “And then she said, I can’t find Mom.’”
Reiner was asked to clarify his comments about having lost “more than half of his family,” following the murders.
“Yeah, I mean—he’s in jail,” he said, referring to his brother Nick. “So, you know… it’s like I physically lost my parents, and then Nick was arrested. Now it’s just me and Romy.”
Rob Reiner also shared his oldest daughter, Tracy Reiner, 62, with his first wife, Penny Marshall. Jake and Romy shared a joint statement shortly after their parents were killed. “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” they wrote.
“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” the statement continued, “They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
In April, Jake said more in a lengthy Substack post. “A lot of people have said to me, ‘I don’t even know what to say,’ and I don’t blame them. If I weren’t in the middle of this s--tstorm, I wouldn’t know what to say either. It’s too specific. Too dark.”
“One thing I keep coming back to is how frightened they must have been,” he also wrote. “They were the last people in the world to deserve what happened to them.”
Their middle sibling Nick struggled throughout his life with substance abuse and mental health issues prior to his arrest. According to reports, he bounced between homelessness and rehab centers as a teenager.
Rob Reiner was hopeful for his son’s recovery just months before his death, telling NPR last September that Nick was doing “great,” and had been sober for six years. He was in “a really good place,” he added.
The night before the couple’s deaths, Nick had attended Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party, where they reportedly got into a heated argument about Nick’s behavior.
TMZ quoted sources as saying that Nick had relapsed shortly before the killings. He made his first court appearance while wearing a blue suicide prevention smock, according to the New York Post.
Jake Reiner reflected on the losses on Thursday, saying, “It’s been eight months. It feels like eight years at the same time. It also feels like eight minutes because every moment that I wake up, I’m reminded of my reality. And you’re living through that every single day.”
