Jake Reiner has shared a new essay in which he says he was ‘in a trance’ after learning that his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, had died.
Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, a photographer and political activist, were discovered dead at their home in Brentwood on December 14 after Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) personnel attended the property.
In the days that followed, the medical examiner ruled that both had sustained ‘multiple sharp force injuries’, and authorities have treated the case as a homicide.
Nick Reiner, 32 — the son Rob shared with his second wife — was later arrested. He pleaded not guilty on February 23 to two counts of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors allege the Being Charlie writer stabbed both of his parents before leaving the scene.
Nick remains in custody, and he is next scheduled to appear in court on April 29.
In a 1,625-word piece published on Substack, Nick’s older brother Jake, 34, wrote about the shock of losing both parents at once, adding that it has been even harder with his younger sibling allegedly ‘at the center of it’.
“My world, as I knew it, had collapsed,” the actor said of the moment his sister, Romy Reiner, 28, shared the news over the phone. “I was in a trance.”
“The only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.”
Calling Rob his ‘hero’ and describing his mother as the family’s ‘backbone’, the Flipped star acknowledged that many 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,” he said in the lengthy blog post.
Jake also wrote about the future moments he says have now been taken away — losses he said leave him both devastated and angry.
“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,” the former broadcaster wrote.
You can read Jake Reiner’s full Substack post here.
After Rob and Michele’s deaths, Jake and Romy issued a statement describing the family’s grief, saying they were in ‘unimaginable pain’ following what they called a ‘horrific and devastating loss’.
The siblings — who also have a half-sister, Tracy Reiner, 61 — did not directly comment on the allegations involving their brother.
They also said they were ‘grateful’ for the ‘outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support’ from friends, relatives, and members of the public.