Conan O’Brien Breaks His Silence on Rob Reiner’s Killing After Director Attended His Holiday Party the Night Before

Conan O’Brien has opened up about the devastating loss of his longtime friends Rob and Michele Reiner, reflecting on the shock he experienced after their deaths.

The comedian recalled seeing the couple just hours before they were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Dec. 14. Rob Reiner, 78, best known for directing When Harry Met Sally…, and his wife Michele Reiner, 70, had attended O’Brien’s holiday gathering the night before.

“I knew Rob and Michele, and over time we became closer and closer,” said Conan O’Brien, 62, in a recent interview with The New Yorker. He noted that he and his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, had been spending considerable time with the couple.

“They were just such lovely people,” O’Brien said. “To say good night to someone and then learn the next day that they’re gone… I was in shock for quite a while. There’s really no other word for it.”

Authorities later arrested the couple’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Sources told PEOPLE that tensions reportedly surfaced during O’Brien’s party, where Nick Reiner allegedly argued with his father. One insider claimed Reiner’s behavior unsettled guests, describing him as acting erratically and repeatedly questioning attendees about their fame.

Nick Reiner made his initial court appearance on Dec. 17. His attorney declined to enter a plea, and he remains held without bail at Twin Towers Correctional Facility. According to a police source, he has been placed on suicide watch. If convicted, the charges could result in a sentence of life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty.

Speaking candidly with journalist David Remnick, O’Brien described the tragedy as deeply unsettling.

“It’s just so awful,” he said. “I think about how Rob felt about what’s happening in the country, how engaged he was, how much he put himself out there. To have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend.”

O’Brien also paid tribute to Reiner’s filmmaking legacy, praising his extraordinary run of influential movies.

“It’s an almost impossible feat,” he said. “Seven films in roughly a decade that became classics. With This Is Spinal Tap alone — if that had been the only thing he ever did — he would have influenced my generation enormously. When it came out, I was in college, and it felt like a splitting-the-atom moment.”

During the conversation, O’Brien also reflected on other recent losses in the entertainment industry, including Catherine O’Hara, who died earlier this year at age 71.

“That’s another person I’d put in that category,” he said. “Someone who was perfection.”

O’Brien is set to return as host of the 98th annual Academy Awards, scheduled for Sunday, March 15, airing on ABC and Hulu.