TV host Conan O’Brien has admitted he feels “very hollow” after the killing of his friends Rob and Michele Reiner – admitting the grief hits him “multiple times a week”.
Conan O’Brien feels “very hollow” after the death of his friends Rob and Michele Reiner.
The TV host was left devastated after the director and his wife were found dead at their home in Los Angeles last December just hours after they attended Conan’s holiday party the previous night with their son Nick Reiner, who has denied two counts of first-degree murder in relation to the killing of his parents. Conan opened up about his friendship with the couple during a celebration of their lives at the 2026 Children’s Institute’s annual Cape and Gown Gala on Sunday night (08.11.26).
During the event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, Conan told the audience: “It’s so devastating and surreal that Rob and Michele are not with us anymore. I think multiple times a week, it will hit me that they’re not here. It leaves you feeling very hollow.”
He added: “This event, something that they cared about so much, the Children’s Institute, is just a way to imagine and realise that they’re here and they’re working.
“They started something, and we keep them with us. We keep them close if we join in and do the work because that’s what they were all about.”
The event also featured Rob and Michele’s children, Jake and Romy Reiner, who celebrated their parents’ legacy and presented the inaugural Michele and Rob Reiner Champion for Change Award to actress and family friend Jamie Lee Curtis.
Comedian Chelsea Handler also spoke at the event and praised the late couple’s charitable efforts, saying: “Rob and Michele have brought so many of us together. They are with us, and they will remain with us.”
Conan previously revealed he’d become close to the couple prior to their deaths and feels haunted by the fact they were killed just hours after they’d all spent time together at his party.
He told The New Yorker: “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them. [I was] were seeing them a lot.
“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. I mean, there’s no other word for it.”
He went on to add: “It’s just so awful. And I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there – and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend.”
Nick Reiner, 33, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, with a special circumstance alleging multiple murders, and remains in custody ahead of his trial, which is expected to take place next year.
Conan O’Brien feels ‘hollow’ after death of Rob and Michele Reiner
