Conan O’Brien has finally weighed in on the deaths of friends Rob and Michele Reiner after they famously attended his annual Christmas party in Los Angeles the night before their murders on Dec. 14, 2025.
“It’s just so awful,” he told the New Yorker in a newly published interview.
“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.”
Conan O’Brien, seen here in West Hollywood earlier this month, commented on the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner. A24 via Getty Images
“I was seeing them a lot,” he told the New Yorker. Rob and Michele are seen here at SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in New York. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
He also reflected on his relationship with the iconic “Princess Bride” director and his wife.
“I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot,” he shared.
“My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so—they were just such lovely people. And 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.”
Rob and Michele’s daughter, Romy, found the couple stabbed to death in their home on Dec. 14. Rob was 78 and Michele was 70.
“I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward,” the comedian, seen here at an event in New Jersey on Dec. 7, 2025, said of their deaths. Getty Images
Rob and Michele, seen here at the Human Rights Campaign Gala in 2019, were found stabbed to death by their daughter Romy on Dec. 14. / SplashNews.com
It was revealed at the time that their deaths occurred after they had argued with their son Nick at O’Brien’s holiday party the previous night.
Nick, 32, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders.
The aspiring director faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
It was subsequently revealed that their son Nick, seen here with the Reiner family at the Los Angeles Premiere of ”Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” in September 2025, had argued with his parents at a holiday party thrown by O’Brien. REUTERS
Nick was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders. / SplashNews.com
He was being medicated for diagnosed schizophrenia; however, the medication had the effect of making him “out of his head.” Nick also has a long history of drug addiction.
Nick was scheduled to be arraigned last month. However, his lawyer — famed criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson — quit the case just before the court hearing on Jan. 7. The arraignment has been rescheduled for Monday.
Jackson later discussed his reasons for dropping the case.
Nick, seen here with his family at a New York event in 2014, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. REUTERS
Nick’s arraignment has been scheduled for Monday. MediaPunch / BACKGRID
“That’s a confidential communication between a lot of folks that I’m not willing to disclose,” he told Billy Bush during a January appearance on the “Hot Mic” podcast.
When Bush asked if it had to do with money, Jackson responded, “You can’t say that something happened with the retainer because I’ve never said that.”
“Obviously, something happened with my ability, and my team’s ability, to continue the representation, but I don’t want you, your audience or anybody else to start speculating as to what that might be,” he added. “I have not said a word about it.”
Jackson continued, “Once I’m done, I’m done. I’ve withdrawn.”
