The night before Rob Reiner and wife Michele Singer died in December 2025, they attended Conan O’Brien’s holiday party. Like the rest of the world, the comedian and host was stunned by their passing. In a Friday The New Yorker profile, O’Brien revealed that prior to their deaths, he and his wife had grown close with the couple, and that he was “in shock for quite a while afterwards” after receiving the news.
The Hollywood Reporter had previously revealed that at the O’Briens’ holiday party, Rob and Michele’s son Nick Reiner (who has been arrested for the alleged murder of his parents) had been a disruptive presence, confronting guest Bill Hader at one point and arguing later with Ron before all three Reiners left for the evening.
“They were just such lovely people. And to have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone. … I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward,” O’Brien told The New Yorker. “I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”
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O’Brien also mentioned his admiration for Reiner’s legacy as a filmmaker, noting that “It’s seven movies that Rob Reiner made, in quick succession, that are classics. Now, if you can make one great movie, that’s impressive. It’s an almost impossible feat. To make two means that you’re one of the greats. To make seven — in, like, a nine-year, 10-year, 11-year period — is insanity. With Spinal Tap alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously.”
Coming up, O’Brien will host the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15th, 2026. It will be his second time MC’ing the event.
