Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were married for 36 years — a romance that began after he struggled to find love after his divorce.
It came to a horrific last weekend. The couple was found dead in their Los Angeles home on Sunday, Dec. 14, and appeared to have died from stab wounds, a source close to the Reiner family told NBC News.
Their cause of death was multiple sharp force injuries, according to the medical examiner's report, released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
Nick Reiner, their son, has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murdering his parents.
Reiner, who was 78 when he died, said that before meeting his second wife, he didn’t think he’d find love again.
The actor and director was previously married to actress and director Penny Marshall. They wed in 1971 and divorced in 1981.
The aftermath of that split and his struggles to find a new partner were his inspiration for making “When Harry Met Sally” — the beloved romantic comedy he directed, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.
''I was in the middle of my single life. I'd been divorced for a while. I'd been out a number of times, all these disastrous, confusing relationships one after another,” Reiner told The New York Times in 1989.
As a single man, he was making “an utter mess” of his personal life and wanted to make a movie about what men and women go through, he added in an interview with People.
Reiner called himself the “prototype for Harry” in the movie, a man shocked by his divorce and unable to find love: “I couldn't see how I would get with anybody ever again. It became the basis for the film,” the director told AARP in 2014.
But about three-quarters of the way through making the movie, he met his second wife-to-be, the friend of a colleague.
The love story began when Reiner told Barry Sonnenfeld, the film’s cinematographer, about the struggles in his personal life.
“And he says to me, 'I know this girl. Her name is Michele Singer, and you're going to marry her.' And I said, 'What, are you nuts?'” Reiner recalled to The New York Times.
But when she came to the set one day, he was quickly smitten.
“I'll never forget it. It was a scene on a stoop in front of a brownstone. Billy and Meg are having an argument. And I look over, and I see this girl, and whoo! I was attracted immediately. And Barry says, 'That's Michele.' I said, 'That's Michele?'”
After meeting her, Reiner thought, "I see how this could work again," he told AARP.
Michele Singer was a photographer, producer and actress. The couple married in May 1989 and had three children.
"As you go along, the relationship becomes better and better because you really become best friends. And that has happened,” Reiner told AARP about his second marriage.
“She has helped raise me. The thing I talk about, how women show you what's important, she has done for me."
In 2024, Reiner revealed the love story with his wife inspired him to change the ending of “When Harry Met Sally.”
The original script had the characters Harry Burns and Sally Albright going their separate ways rather than the happier finale fans know — Harry professing his love on New Year’s Eve, telling Sally he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and the pair becoming a couple.
“It was going to be the two of them seeing each other after years, talking, and then walking away from each other,” he said on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.”
“I met my wife, Michele… while we were making the film, and I changed the ending.”
Meg Ryan paid tribute to Reiner and his wife on Instagram, writing, "Oh how we will miss this man. Thank you, Rob and Michelle, for the way you believe in true love, in fairy tales, and in laughter."
Reiner also directed “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men” and “This Is Spinal Tap.”
Family friend Maria Shriver remembered the couple as "two deeply talented, kind, fun, loving, good, patriotic people who loved each other deeply."
