‘What the hell do you say?’: elder son of Rob Reiner speaks out on parents’ murders

The elder son of beloved director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, eulogized his parents, who were “the center” of his life, in a Substack essay published Friday, four months after the pair were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.

Nick Reiner, the couple’s younger son, who long struggled with drug addiction and mental illness, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to their deaths, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

“What the hell do you say to someone who is living through this reality?” Jack Reiner wrote in his essay, his first public comment on his parents’ deaths.

“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable. Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process.”

On 14 December, the day his parents’ bodies were discovered, Jake was celebrating the life of a close friend who had died when his sister Romy called with the news.

“Every day since then has been horrendous. Every meeting we take, every person we talk to, every tear we shed, every movement we make is connected to our parents being murdered. In the middle of trying to process the most devastating moment of your life, the world demands meetings, paperwork, decisions, and explanations; as if documentation must come before mourning,” he wrote.

“Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time. It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.”

Jake said he and his mother, a photographer, always saw Les Misérables when the production would travel to Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, he and his father shared a deep love for the Los Angeles Dodgers and often watched their games together.

“I’ll never go to Dodger Stadium again without feeling my dad’s presence and hearing his voice tell me why Shohei Ohtani should never bat in the leadoff spot,” he wrote.

As questions linger about the circumstances of his parents’ death, Jake concluded the Substack post with one request.