Before tragedy struck the Reiner family, Nick Reiner — son of When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner — was fighting to turn his life around.
Years before his shocking arrest for the double murder of his parents, the troubled 32-year-old once landed a coveted internship on Family Guy — thanks to his famous father’s desperate pleas to help him get back on his feet after rehab.
“He felt like the black sheep of this perfect Hollywood family,” one former staffer told RadarOnline.com. “He had this introverted energy — darkly funny, but you could feel the pain behind it.”
At the time, Nick was sober, trying to piece his life together after more than a dozen stints in rehab and years spent drifting through addiction and homelessness. “It felt like he was trying to figure out who he was without the drugs,” said the insider.
His coworkers actually liked him — he was honest about his struggles and used humor as a kind of therapy. Some even encouraged him to try stand-up comedy. But others quietly knew he wouldn’t have gotten far without his father’s pull in Hollywood.
“He wouldn’t have gotten those gigs or the Family Guy job without Rob’s influence,” the staffer admitted. “But Rob really was trying. He’d drop Nick off and pick him up every day. He wanted him to make it.”
Nick’s demons, however, ran deep. Friends say he once stole money from his father to pay a prostitute and had a long history of erratic behavior.
Now, Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer, 68, are gone — found dead in their Los Angeles mansion on December 14, their throats slit in what police are calling a brutal double homicide.
Nick Reiner has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. If convicted, he could face life without parole — or even the death penalty.
It’s a tragic end to a Hollywood family that once seemed untouchable — and to a son who spent years trying to escape his own shadow.
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