In an interview with The New Yorker, the former talk show host admits that the “experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone” left him “in shock for quite a while afterward.”
“I mean, there’s no other word for it. It’s just very — it’s so awful. It’s just so awful,” he said, adding that he and his wife had recently gotten closer to the couple, who “were just such lovely people.”
O’Brien didn’t discuss Nick at all during his interview, instead emphasizing Rob Reiner’s influence on his life.
“I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there — and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien could have a chance to pay tribute to his friend next month, when he hosts the Academy Awards on March 15 on ABC.
