Rob Reiner’s youngest son, Nick Reiner, detailed his drug addiction years before he was named a person of interest in his parents’ shocking stabbing death.
“I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas,” Nick, who was first sent to rehab at the age of 15, told People in a 2016 interview.
“I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun,” he added.
Nick became homeless and was in and out of shelters after he refused to go back to rehab for his drug addiction.
“If I wanted to do it my way and not go to the programs they were suggesting, then I had to be homeless,” he shared.
Nick, who co-wrote a semi-autobiographical film called “Being Charlie” about his 17 visits to rehab, said being a vagrant was a valuable experience.
“That made me who I am now, having to deal with that stuff,” he told the outlet.
“I met crazy great people there, so out of my element. Now, I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in LA and being around my family,” Nick added.
“But there was a lot of dark years there.”
Nick shared that he “could’ve died” while living on the streets after leaving rehab at the age of 19.
“It’s all luck. You roll the dice and you hope you make it.”
Rob also previously got candid about his son’s battle with addiction.
“It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows,” the famed director told the LA Times in 2016. “And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”
Rob said rehab “works for some people but it can’t work for everybody.”
“When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen,” the “All in the Family” alum added.
“We were desperate and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”
On Sunday, Rob and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood, Calif., home. The Emmy winner was 78 and the actress was 68.
The couple, who tied the knot in 1989, had their throats slit during a heated argument with a family member inside their home. Rob and Michele’s bodies were found by their daughter, Romy.
Nick, 32, has been named as a person of interest for the crimes but no arrests have been made as of this reporting.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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