Rob Reiner’s son spoke openly about his struggles before arrest over parents’ deaths

2 months ago 6

By Ali Watkins

December 16, 2025 — 10.18am

Nick Reiner, who was arrested after his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Los Angeles home, had spoken over the years about his struggles with drug abuse and bouts of homelessness.

“When I was out there, I could’ve died,” he told People magazine in 2016, speaking about being homeless. “It’s all luck. You roll the dice, and you hope you make it.”

The 32-year-old was arrested late Sunday after his parents were found dead at their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Monday that he had been “booked for murder”. He was being held without bail, police said.

Nick and Rob Reiner had worked together on a movie, Being Charlie, which was loosely inspired by the son’s early life. Rob directed, and his son wrote the screenplay alongside Matt Elisofon, whom he met in rehab.

The movie’s release in 2015 signalled a victory lap of sorts for Nick, who had been in and out of rehab and experienced homelessness since he was about 15.

Being Charlie follows the entitled, drug-addicted son of a high-profile actor turned political candidate in California. Although it was not autobiographical, Rob said the experience did a great deal to strengthen his relationship with his son.

“It forced me to have to see more clearly, and understand more deeply, what Nick had gone through,” Rob said in a joint interview with his son on BUILD, YouTube’s live interview series, in 2016. “And I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process.”

“It definitely brought us closer together,” Rob said. He and his wife had two other children together: a son, Jake, and a daughter, Romy.

In the interview, Nick spoke of his childhood relationship with his father. “We didn’t bond a lot,” he said, adding that working on the film with his father had made him “feel closer to him.”

When the film was released, Nick said he had been back home in Los Angeles and was staying clean.

“Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in LA and being around my family,” he told People. “But there was a lot of dark years there.”

Rob had expressed hope that he would work with his son again. Nick has not compiled any further screenwriting credits.

“Any time I would get an opportunity to work with him, I would do it, but I do understand him wanting to forge his own way,” the director said of his son in a 2016 interview with NPR. “I do know what that’s about, I went through it, and he’s brilliant and talented, and he’s going to figure out his path.”

Nick’s most recent public appearance alongside his father was in September, when the director was photographed with his family on the red carpet for the premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.