Rob Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner had an uncomfortable interaction with son Nick Reiner the night before they were murdered.
A source exclusively tells Us Weekly that Rob, Michele and Nick, 32, attended Conan O’Brien‘s Christmas party on Saturday, December 13. Nick allegedly acted “creepily” at the celebration before leaving, according to the insider.
“Nick was going up to people at Conan O’Brien’s party asking if they were famous,” a source adds.
TMZ reported that Rob and Nick got into a “very loud argument” at the gathering, which other attendees overheard. Rob and Michele subsequently left the event — just one day before they were found dead “from apparent stab wounds” in their Los Angeles home. Us Weekly has reached out to O’Brien’s rep for comment.
Nick was arrested on Monday, December 15, and remains in custody on no bail as authorities investigate Rob and Michele’s murders. The couple, who got married in 1989, shared three children: Jake, Nick and Romy. (Rob also adopted ex-wife Penny Marshall‘s daughter, Tracy.)
Before Rob and Michele’s deaths at ages 78 and 68, respectively, they were candid about how Nick’s addiction struggles had caused a rift within their family. Nick started to struggle with drug use as a teenager, leading to his first rehab stint at age 15. After several relapses and treatment stints, Nick began to live on the street.
“I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas,” Nick told People in 2016. “I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun. If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless.”
Nick credited the experience for helping him get clean.
“That made me who I am now, having to deal with that stuff,” he added at the time. “I met crazy great people there, so out of my element. Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in L.A. and being around my family.”
Nick continued: “When I was out there, I could’ve died. It’s all luck. There were a lot of dark years there.”
After using those years of his life as inspiration for the 2015 film Being Charlie, Rob and Michele spoke out about their regrets over the situation.
“If your kid is going through rough times, [as] the parent, your main job is to keep your child safe. So I would do anything,” Rob said during a Build Series interview at the time. “At the end of the day, I know my child better than an expert does and I probably should have trusted my own instinct and that’s one of the things I did learn about the whole experience.”
Rob also revealed he apologized to Nick about how they handled his issues.
“When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen,” Rob told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”
Michele, meanwhile, added during the interview, “We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.”
