Rob Reiner and wife Michele ‘did everything right,’ their friend Rita Wilson insists after grisly murder

Rob Reiner and his wife Michele received a heartbreaking tribute from friend Rita Wilson, who said the couple ‘loved their kids’ and ‘did everything right’.

Reiner, 78, and Michele, 70, were found stabbed to death Sunday at their $13.5 million Brentwood mansion, where their 32-year-old son Nick was living in a guest house. Nick was arrested that night and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Reports claim the bodies were found by Reiners’ 27-year-old daughter Romy, who allegedly told police about a ‘dangerous’ family member who ‘must be suspicious’.

Nick had a long history of drug and mental health issues; he first went to rehab at age 15 and had gone through multiple periods of homelessness before his final stay at his parents’ guest house; He admitted that he was ‘devastated’ by this situation once, ‘completely blown away’ and it kept him ‘up for days’.

Now their longtime friend Wilson offers a devastating account of his bond with the slain couple in an essay published by . Diversity.

‘They made the world a better place. They loved their children. Each. They did everything right. They loved it. They were loved,’ Tom Hanks’ wife Wilson wrote.

Wilson penned a fragmented tribute to Reiner and Michele (taken in 2013) after the couple was found stabbed to death on Sunday.

In addition to Nick, the Reiners were the parents of Romy, who lived across the street, and another son, 34, named Jake. Rob Reiner also had an older daughter, Tracy, 61, whom he adopted with his first wife, Penny Marshall.

He directed Wilson in the comedies North and The Story of Us, and they co-starred in two more films: Sleepless in Seattle and Mixed Nuts.

A shattered Wilson wrote in his essay praising his late friends: ‘It is difficult to reconcile the good they have offered to the world with this end. It doesn’t make any sense. But how they live makes a lot of sense in the world.’

He expressed sadness at never again being able to experience the pleasure of ‘running into Rob and Michele in the neighborhood and having a great laugh, or having dinner where Michele insists on just having a single conversation.’

Wilson praised Michele as a “talented photographer” who finds “beauty in every day” and Reiner for “making history in so many ways with his work.”

He further praised the couple’s activism, writing: ‘Both have made a difference in their civic contributions and actions.’

Wilson and Hanks’ son Chet, 35, has previously been honest about struggling with his own substance abuse issues, which he overcame with the support of his parents.

Last year, before he got sober, he stated that he “went out doing coke and they said to me: ‘Hey, calm down, bro… Wait a second. Give it like 15 minutes.’ Raw Speech podcast.

The Reiners, who married in 1989, had three children: (from left) Jake, 34, Nick, 32, and Romy, 27; all filmed at Avery Fisher Hall in New York in 2014

Reiner and Nick were photographed at the BUILD Series in 2016, promoting their film Being Charlie, which was inspired by Nick’s quick struggle with addiction.

In late 2023, Chet announced that he would stay sober for two years. The Adam Friedland Showand confirmed this March that he had successfully stayed on the wagon.

Chet praised his family for “sticking with me through good times and bad.” The Drew Barrymore Show this year.

‘And I don’t take that lightly. “I’m really grateful to both of my parents, and I’m at an age where I can be really grateful to them,” she told Barrymore, who is now sober herself after a past addiction to drugs and alcohol.

“But what I’ve learned through this process is that family — whether blood or find — shames and embarrass you when you don’t do the right things, and it’s when you do that you’re most proud,” Chet observed.

A source close to Rob Reiner told the Daily Mail this Monday that Nick ‘lived in their guesthouse, which he destroyed on more than one occasion, but it’s been a revolving door throughout his adult life.’

The source also claimed: ‘He was on methon, wouldn’t sleep for days and then he would have outbursts, breaking things, punching walls. He was a ticking time bomb. His drug use was getting worse and his family wanted him out.’

The friend claimed Nick “bragged about how he could get away with anything and took money from his parents for drugs and prostitution.”

The insider added: ‘He used to talk about these issues at meetings but then stopped going because he said it was too cult. He laughed more than once at the destruction of his parents’ guesthouse. He was very nonchalant about it.

The bodies were found by Reiners’ 27-year-old daughter Romy, who informed police about a ‘dangerous’ family member who ‘should have been suspicious’; Romy poses with Nick

Last Saturday, the night before Rob and Michele Reiner were murdered, Nick was seen having a ‘very loud argument’ with his parents at Conan O’Brien’s star-studded Christmas party, according to sources. TMZ.

At this point, Michele allegedly told her friends for months that they were trying to deal with Nick’s drug and mental problems, saying: ‘We tried everything.’

Nick’s substance abuse began at an early age, resulting in his first stint in rehab at the age of 15, and by the time he was 22, he had spent a staggering 17 stays in treatment facilities.

Reiner revealed his family’s turmoil by directing the 2015 film Being Charlie, inspired by Nick’s rapid struggle with addiction.

Nick co-wrote the script, in which Charlie opposes his parents’ approach to drug use (for example, mandatory restrictions in rehab).

Towards the end of the film, Charlie’s father apologizes for being so harsh on him; Reiner describes this speech as a reflection of reality.

While promoting the film the year of its release, Reiner expressed regret at relying so heavily on the advice of medical professionals when seeking help for Nick.

“We wouldn’t listen when Nick told us it wasn’t working,” he told the Los Angeles Times. ‘We were desperate and we listened to people when we should have listened to our son because they had diplomas on their walls.’

Wilson and Hanks’ son Chet, 35, has previously been honest about struggling with his own substance abuse issues and overcame them with the support of his parents; pictured 2014

Michele said: ‘We are so impressed by these people. They would tell us that he was a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. So we believed them.’

The following year, Nick opened up about his past experiences with addiction, saying that he had been homeless multiple times in previous years because he refused to submit to the treatments he was given.

“If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they recommended, then I would have to be homeless,” he shared in an interview with People magazine.

‘I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas. I spent nights on the street. I stayed on the street for weeks. It wasn’t fun.’

He eventually quit drugs “when he got tired of doing it,” he explained. ‘I come from a beautiful family. ‘I’m not supposed to be doing all these awful things on the streets and in homeless shelters.’

Two years later, he gave an interview in which he described how he once destroyed his parents’ guest house while under the influence.

“I’m totally excited,” Dopey said on an episode of his podcast. ‘I think it was coke and something else. ‘I was up for days.’

He recalled ‘punching different things in my guest house’. I started with the television, then moved to the lamp. ‘Everything in the guesthouse is destroyed.’

While promoting Being Charlie in 2016, Nick explained that he “didn’t connect” with his father when he was younger, but working on the film “made me feel closer to him.”

He harbored hopes that he could maintain his sobriety and avoid sinking back into homelessness because ‘I could die while he was out.’ “Everything is luck in the BUILD Series,” he said. ‘You roll the dice and hope to succeed.’