Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were tragically found stabbed to death in their Brentwood, California home on Sunday. Their son, Nick, has been arrested in connection with their deaths and is currently being held without bail.
According to a source speaking to People, the couple struggled to find a stable solution for Nick, who has faced issues with substance abuse since he was 14. They “tried in every way to help” him but found it challenging to reach a point of stability.
Another insider commented on the heartbreaking situation, stating, “They tried everything—giving him space, keeping him close—but his struggles are so deep. It’s just a parent’s worst nightmare.”
The tragic incident occurs nearly ten years after Nick shared with the outlet that he had once “harbored a lot of ill will” towards his parents. This stemmed from their decision to send him to a treatment center when they discovered his drug use, though he later said those feelings had “diminished to almost zero.”
Nick had previously expressed that if he chose not to follow the programs his parents suggested, he would face homelessness. “If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless,” he revealed in 2016 while promoting “Being Charlie,” a film he co-wrote and his father directed, which explores themes of reluctant recovery from addiction.
In interviews, Nick recounted experiences of being homeless in various states, including Maine, New Jersey, and Texas, admitting, “I could’ve died. … You roll the dice and you hope you make it.”
“I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,” he shared. “That made me who I am now, having to deal with that stuff. … 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. But there was a lot of dark years before.”
Also in 2016, Nick told Paul Mecurio’s podcast that he’d “had no identity, and I had no passions” due to living in the shadow of his father and late grandfather Carl Reiner.
“That fame sort of informs who you are,” Nick said at the time. “So, I wanted to edge out my own identity with a more rebellious, angry, drug-addicted sort of persona.”
The “Princess Bride” and “Misery” filmmaker, who was 78, said in 2015 he believed the film “did make me understand him a lot more and I think it made me a better father, hopefully it did.”
Nick was using again by 2017, and later admitted to having “started punching out different things in my [parents’] guest house.”
TMZ reported Monday that Reiner and Singer, who also shared son Jake, 34, and 28-year-old daughter Romy, spent Saturday night at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party, where the director and Nick got into a “very loud argument.”
Reiner and his wife, 68, then left, though it’s unclear whether their son, who’d been living in their guesthouse, followed suit.
Reiner family sources told TMZ and the Los Angeles Times that the couple had been increasingly worried about their son’s mental health. Reiner, Singer and their three kids were photographed together at the Sept. 9 premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.”
