Jake Reiner Recalls ‘Shock’ After Sister Romy Called to Say Their Father Rob Reiner Was Dead

Jake Reiner and Rob and Michele Reiner.

Eight months after the deaths of his parents, Jake Reiner is speaking publicly about the moment his life changed forever.

The 35-year-old gave his first sit-down interview since filmmaker Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were killed at their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025. Speaking with KABC-TV reporter Marc Cota-Robles, Jake described receiving an urgent phone call from his younger sister Romy Reiner and the disbelief that followed.

Jake also reflected on the arrest of his brother, Nick Reiner, who has been charged in connection with their parents’ deaths.

Nick, 32, has been indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody as the criminal case continues.

Jake said he was attending a celebration of life for a friend at Union Station in Los Angeles when Romy, now 28, first tried to reach him.

At first, Jake did not answer.

“Romy called me, and I screened it because I thought at the time, ‘I’m in the middle of something,’ ” he recalled.

But Romy called back almost immediately.

That second call made Jake realize something serious had happened.

“When she called again immediately, I knew at that point that something was wrong,” Jake said.

When he answered, Romy delivered devastating news.

“Romy told me our dad was dead, and then she said, ‘I can’t find Mom,’ ” Jake recalled.

The words sent him into immediate shock.

“I need to get out of this train station, and I need to get to my parents’ house,” he remembered thinking.

Jake’s professional background made what happened next even more surreal.

As a local television news reporter, he had previously covered crime scenes and witnessed the aftermath of traumatic events involving other families.

Nothing prepared him, however, for arriving at a crime scene connected to his own parents and the home where he had grown up.

“When it’s your crime scene, like a crime scene at your childhood home, [it’s] like the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Eight months later, Jake said his perception of time remains distorted by grief.

“It’s been eight months. It feels like eight years at the same time. And it also feels like 8 minutes,” he explained.

The pain returns every morning, he said, because waking up means confronting the same reality again.

“Every moment that I wake up, I’m reminded of my reality.”

Throughout the interview, Jake was repeatedly asked about Nick and the accusations against him.

He declined to discuss several questions involving his brother’s alleged role in the killings.

Instead, Jake focused on what he knew about the relationship between his parents and Nick before their deaths.

According to Jake, Rob and Michele never stopped trying to support their son, even during the difficult years surrounding Nick’s struggles with substance addiction.

“My parents had unconditional love for all three of us,” Jake said, referring to himself, Nick and Romy.

“I can tell you they never stopped wanting to help him. They never stopped helping him.”

Nick had previously spoken publicly about his addiction struggles.

Those experiences became part of the inspiration for the 2015 film Being Charlie, which Nick developed with his father.

The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, was loosely based on aspects of Nick’s life and centered on a young man struggling with addiction and treatment.

Looking back, Jake believes the project represented an attempt by his father to strengthen his relationship with Nick.

“I think that that project was a way for my dad to try and connect with him,” Jake said.

Discussing Nick directly remains extraordinarily difficult for Jake.

He explained that the night his parents died effectively resulted in the loss of more than half of his immediate family.

Rob and Michele were physically gone, while Nick’s arrest meant Jake also lost the relationship he previously had with his brother.

“I mean, he’s in jail so… you know, it’s like I physically lost my parents and then Nick was arrested and now it’s just me and Romy,” Jake said.

That reality has left Jake and Romy trying to navigate an unimaginable family tragedy together.

Jake said he has been attending therapy in the months since the killings as he attempts to process grief, anger and helplessness.

Jake Reiner, Nick Reiner, Romy Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner and Rob Reiner in 2024.

For him, the pain does not appear only as sadness.

“It manifests into rage, into how unfair this was, how I didn’t get a say in what happened,” he said.

One of the hardest elements, Jake explained, is accepting that he had no ability to prevent what happened.

“I didn’t get to stop it from happening. I had no choice in the matter. I just have to accept the reality of it.”

He described that lack of control as one of the most infuriating parts of his grief.

Even after months of investigations and the release of new information in the criminal case, Jake said he does not believe any explanation will ever make his parents’ deaths understandable to him.

“I’ll never understand,” he said.

“I don’t care how it’s explained to me. I don’t care what facts come out. I will never understand why this happened.”

Meanwhile, the prosecution against Nick continues to move forward.

Earlier in August, Nick was formally indicted in connection with the December 2025 deaths of Rob and Michele.

According to the indictment obtained by PEOPLE, prosecutors have also added an alleged special circumstance of “lying in wait.”

The case additionally includes an allegation involving the use of a knife.

Nick was arrested only hours after his parents were found dead.

Authorities took him into custody near the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

He has remained jailed without bail ever since.

Nick is currently being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.

His time in custody has also attracted attention. Reports have previously described disciplinary issues while he has been incarcerated, although the criminal charges against him remain unresolved and he has entered not-guilty pleas.

Nick is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing on September 15.

If convicted of the charges as currently filed, he could face either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has not yet announced whether prosecutors will seek a death sentence.

For Jake, however, the legal proceedings are only one component of a much larger personal loss.

His interview focused less on courtroom strategy than on what it feels like to continue living after losing both parents suddenly while also watching his brother become the defendant accused of causing their deaths.

Rob Reiner was known internationally as an actor, filmmaker and producer whose career included projects such as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally… and A Few Good Men.

But Jake’s memories are those of a son rather than a member of the public looking back on a Hollywood career.

His comments emphasized the family relationship he lost and the difficulty of reconciling the parents he knew with the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Eight months after Romy’s phone call at Union Station, Jake said grief continues to reshape nearly every aspect of his life.

Therapy has helped him confront some of those emotions, but it has not provided an explanation capable of making the tragedy feel logical.

And as the criminal case against Nick progresses toward its next court hearing, Jake and Romy remain the two siblings outside custody trying to live with the aftermath.

For Jake, that remains the reality he is forced to face every morning — a reality that somehow feels simultaneously eight months, eight years and only minutes old.