Jake Reiner sat down for his first interview since the murder of his parents Rob and Michele Reiner this week and, though he wouldn’t say much about his brother Nick or Nick’s trial, he did confirm that they haven’t spoken.
The Reiners were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home in December, and shortly thereafter, Nick Reiner, Jake’s 32-year-old younger brother, was charged with two counts of murder. Speaking to ABC7 Los Angeles, Jake Reiner didn’t comment on his current feelings about Nick or how his case is progressing, or say whether he has any interest in speaking to Nick eventually.
“For me, it manifests into anger. It manifests into rage, into how unfair this was, how I didn’t get a say in what happened,” Jake Reiner said. “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. And to me, that is just one of the most infuriating parts of all of this.”
“I’ll never understand. I don’t care how it’s explained to me,” he added. “I don’t care what facts come out. I will never understand why this happened.”
Nick Reiner very publicly struggled with addiction and mental health prior to the killings of his parents, even working with Rob Reiner on the 2015 film “Being Charlie.” The movie was loosely based on Nick’s own life, and in his interview this week, Jake Reiner made it clear that his parents “never stopped wanting to help” Nick.
Reiner also noted that it’s hard to understand a situation like this “until you’re living it.”
“It’s been eight months. It feels like eight years at the same time,” he admitted. “And it also feels like eight minutes because every moment that I wake up, I’m reminded of my reality.”
