Nick Reiner spoke openly about addiction before arrest : NPR

FILE – Actor/producer/director Rob Reiner (center) and his wife Michele Singer (left) and son Nick Reiner (right) attend Teen Vogue’s Back to School Kickoff Event Saturday at The Grove on August 9, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Teen Vogue

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Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Teen Vogue

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing evidence in the deaths of director and actor Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner. Police said the couple’s son, Nick Reiner, was arrested Sunday evening and booked into custody on a murder charge. He is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court to answer the charges. Online records that previously listed a $4 million bond have since been updated.

Reiner was born in Los Angeles 32 years ago, one of Rob Reiner’s four children. His grandfather, Carl Reiner, was a comedy legend in the early days of television.

Nick Reiner had spoken openly about his struggles, saying he began using drugs when he was young; He said he was just 15 when he began spending years in rehabilitation and drug treatment centers.

“I’m a spoiled, white, rich kid from a Hollywood family,” he told NPR in 2016. “But I think it’s even more a testament to the power of drugs that you don’t care about any of that.”

Reiner has been candid about his use of all kinds of drugs, including methamphetamine and heroin, and his numerous relapses.

On the “Dopey” podcast in 2016, he talked about how much he hated getting sober and how he sometimes chose to be homeless rather than return to rehab.

Ten years ago, after years of going in and out of halfway houses and treatment centers, Reiner decided to co-write a screenplay based on some of his experiences. His father co-produced and directed the film: Being Charliea semi-autobiographical story about a troubled teenager who has a turbulent relationship with his famous father, a candidate for governor of California.

“It was never about drugs,” Charlie told his father. “All I ever wanted was a way to kill the noise.”

In a key scene, Charlie’s father tells him he loves him and talks to him about supporting him in his tough love. “Every expert with an office and a degree told me I had to be tough on you,” he says. “But every time we sent you to another one of those programs, if I saw you walking away from us, all I could think was, ‘I’d rather you be alive and hating me than dead on the streets.'”

Rob Reiner told NPR that the collaboration was the most satisfying creative experience he’s ever had: “because I got to work with Nick. And even though we went through some tough times and making the film certainly brought those things out, it was also an opportunity to work on a lot of those things.”

For his part, Nick told NPR that making the film was part of his long road to recovery.

FILE – Rob Reiner attends the screening of “Misery” during the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theater on April 25, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for TCM

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Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for TCM

“Many people who suffer from addictions of all kinds are difficult to love,” he said. “So I guess the character had to show how ugly it gets.”

In one scene, Charlie’s character steals OxyContin from a sick, elderly woman who really needs it.

“I’ve definitely done similar things,” Reiner said. “I can’t say I’ve done this for a while, but when I was going through a lot of things like that, of course you don’t really think about anything. You throw your morals out the window.”

The murders of Rob and Michele Reiner have left friends and fans around the world stunned.

“I’m devastated,” says cinematographer Barry Markowitz, who shot Being Charlie and some of Rob Reiner’s other films.

Markowitz, a friend of the Reiners, called them a close-knit family that was “stronger than strong.” He said he stayed with the family whenever he was in Los Angeles.

Markowitz painted a different picture of Nick Reiner.

He remembers a young man who loved basketball and traveled to Europe to learn about his family’s Jewish roots. He says he saw Nick and the family in Los Angeles just 10 days ago.

“[Nick] “He was going through hard times for many years, but his soul was so pure and so gentle,” Markowitz said. “He was thriving. He looks like a GQ model. I wish I could give you a tidbit or something, like ‘oh, he looked bad and this and that’ – he didn’t. That’s what’s so scary about mental illness.”