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LOS ANGELES — Jake Reiner, the eldest son of renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, is speaking out in a rare statement, saying, “I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream.”
“This truly is my living nightmare,” he said in a post on Substack on Friday.
“One thing I keep coming back to is how frightened they must have been,” Jake Reiner said of his parents. “They were the last people in the world to deserve what happened to them. 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.”
Jake Reiner’s brother, Nick Reiner, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges for the deaths of their parents and is due back in court next week.
Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14, 2025. The night before, Nick Reiner — who had been living on his parents’ property — got into an argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party and was seen acting strangely, sources told News. Nick Reiner was taken into custody hours after the bodies were discovered.
Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Reiner, 68, married in 1989 and had three children: sons Jake and Nick and daughter Romy.
Jake Reiner described his parents as his “guiding lights, the foundation of who I am as a human being, and the most giving people I have ever known.”
“The love they have for me, my brother, and my sister is truly unconditional. 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 wrote.
Jake Reiner called his mom his “confidant” and said they could talk for hours.
“Anytime I was going through a tough time or had a complicated issue to hash out, I leaned on her brilliant perspective,” he wrote.
“My mom was the one who helped me move in and out of dorms and apartments at Syracuse University and continued to help me move in and out of apartments when I began my broadcasting career,” he said. “Her support for me never wavered, and I always felt how much she loved me. I feel her presence everywhere, every single day. I miss her so much.”
Jake Reiner said his father — the famed director, producer and actor known for massive Hollywood hits including “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally…” – was the same way at home and in public.
He called his dad his “hero” and said “I felt I could come talk to him about anything.”
“Whenever I was in a difficult relationship, he would challenge me and say, ‘You need to really think about what draws you to a person like this, and once you figure that out and break that pattern, you’ll find the person who is truly right for you,'” he wrote. “I’m proud to say I have found that person in Maria, and I couldn’t be more grateful she had the chance to know and love my parents.”
“Just like my mom, my dad also supported me in whatever I wanted to do with my life,” he continued. “I was nervous when I made the switch from broadcasting to acting because I didn’t know how he’d react. I guess I should’ve known because all he ever wanted was for me to be happy and love what I do. I wish he and I could’ve worked on a project together from start to finish. I miss him so much.”
Reflecting on his parents’ murders, Jake Reiner wrote, “We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable.”
“Any loss of 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,” he said. “It’s almost too impossible to process. 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.”
“My goal in writing this piece is to offer some insight,” he said. “Not only to what I lost but also to celebrate what my parents meant to me.”
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