Rob and Michele Reiner’s son Jake has opened up about both of his parents being “ripped away” from him when they were found dead at their Los Angeles home.
Award-winning film director Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele, 68, were found dead with stab wounds on December 14. Their son Nick, 32, was arrested later that day, and in February, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and the use of a dangerous weapon.
In his first extensive public statement since his parents’ death, Jake, 34, reflected on receiving a phone call from his sister Romy, who found their parents at the scene.
“I was robbed of so many things that day. My parents won’t be at my wedding, they won’t get to hold their future grandchild, and they won’t get to see me have the successful career I’m still seeking,” he wrote in a Substack essay, alongside a selection of family pictures from his childhood. “It simultaneously breaks my heart and enrages me.”
Jake said that losing 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,” he added.
He said his parents were “the last people in the world to deserve what happened to them,” and that he couldn’t imagine “how frightened they must have been.”
“They deserved to be loved, they deserved to be respected, and above all they deserved to be appreciated for how much they gave to all three of us and to the world,” he wrote.
Looking back on his childhood, Jake reflected on how his parents were the center of his life. “A lot of people don’t have the luxury of having the best parents, the best mom, or the best dad, but I did.”
“The love they have for me, my brother, and my sister is truly unconditional,” he wrote. “And the love they have for each other in their marriage is something I always looked up to as the standard of what a successful relationship looks like.”
He remembered his mom as his confidant, a funny, inspiring woman who encouraged him to pursue his dreams.
“Authentic”, “passionate” and “my hero” were the words he chose to describe his filmmaker dad. Jake wrote: “The way my dad presented himself in the public eye was exactly the beautiful person he was at home.”
Jake recalled fond memories of seeing musicals such as Les Misérables with his parents and watching the Dodgers play with his dad.
“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.
“But I would trade every Dodger game, every Broadway show, every vacation, if I could just spend just one more hour talking to them and to say goodbye.”
Jake said that he and his sister are living through a tragedy, and that every day since their parents’ death 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,” he wrote. “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.”
Addressing the ongoing court proceedings, he wrote: “I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.”
Nick currently remains in custody without bail. He is due back in court next week.
Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner married in 1989 and had three children: sons Jake and Nick and daughter Romy.
Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable movies of the 1980s and 1990s. His credits included This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, A Few Good Men and the romcom When Harry Met Sally, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.
