Conan O’Brien Breaks Silence on Rob Reiner’s Death: ‘It’s So Awful’

Months after Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner’s shocking murders, comedian Conan O’Brien is speaking out.

The night before they were found dead in their home, Rob and Michele attended Conan’s holiday party.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Conan said, “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot. My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so — they were just such lovely people. And to have that experience of saying goodnight 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. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.”

Conan recalled Rob’s outspoken nature and how the director’s voice affected the world, saying, “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.”

Reiner directed classic films including “The Princess Bride,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally...,” “Misery,” and many others.

O’Brien noted, “With ‘Spinal Tap’ alone, if that’d been the only thing he ever did, he influenced my generation enormously. 'Spinal Tap' — when it came out, I was in college, and it was like a splitting-the-atom moment. You have those moments where you see something truly remarkable.”