EXCLUSIVE: Did Nick Reiner Go Downhill BECAUSE of his Therapy? Radar Goes Inside His Drug Treatment — And Reveals His Heroin Obsession
Nick Reiner previously opened up about his dark experience while in rehab.
Dec. 31 2025, Published 2:30 p.m. ET
RadarOnline.com can reveal Nick Reiner is at the center of renewed scrutiny over the treatment programs that shaped his adolescence, as his words about therapy and heroin resurface following his arrest in connection with the killings of his parents.
Nick, 32, the middle child of filmmaker Rob Reiner, 78, and photographer Michele Reiner, 70, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the couple was found dead at their $13.5million home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on December 14.
Nick Reiner Recalls Experience in Wilderness Program
Nick Reiner previously opened up about his experience in a wilderness program.
Authorities say both victims died from "multiple sharp force injuries." Nick has not entered a plea, and the case is ongoing. As investigators piece together the events leading up to the deaths, attention has turned to his long history of addiction, mental illness, and treatment, including a controversial wilderness program in Utah he entered as a teenager.
Friends and former patients of the program say it is impossible to ignore Nick's own account of how his time there intersected with his later heroin use. Speaking on the Dopey podcast in 2016, Nick described being sent at 16 to a Utah wilderness camp called Second Nature after refusing to attend high school and experimenting with drugs.
"I went to a wilderness program in Utah. It was called Second Nature, and I met a kid there from L.A. and, at the time, he was kind of a hardcore Venice kid," he said. Nick went on to explain how that encounter followed him years later.
"I met him when I was 16 and then, (when) I was 18, I was in a sober living, and I call him up because I knew he was really into heroin at the time," he confessed.
Did Nick Reiner's Drug Treatment Backfire?
The 32-year-old, who has a troubled past, is accused of killing his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.
He also recounted traveling to an area near Skid Row in Los Angeles, where he used heroin for the first time.
"The point of the story is that the seed of heroin got planted by the first time I was ever in rehab, and the person I got it from was a guy that I met in rehab like three years down the line," Nick added.
Those remarks are now being cited by sources who knew the Reiner family as evidence of how Nick's treatment may have fatally backfired.
One insider familiar with his history said, "Nick long felt that those programs introduced him to influences and behaviors he wasn't prepared to handle. From his perspective, that was where his exposure to heroin began, rather than out on the streets."
Nick Reiner claimed his addiction to heroin begun while in treatment.
Another said: "Many feel that the intervention designed to help him instead unlocked paths that he was never able to shut again." Nick himself reflected on the fear that drives parents toward extreme measures.
"Parents, they get scared. They don't want to see their children die, so they jump the gun," he said on the same podcast. He later addressed the question of blame over his many troubles directly, saying: "I don't think that they should feel that way at all, and – it's always a person's choice to do something."
Former attendees of Second Nature have described harsh conditions and exposure to discussions about drug use – claims the program disputes.
A spokesperson for Second Nature said allegations of abuse were false and emphasized its licensed status, adding nature-based therapy can help families when traditional settings fail.
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Rob and Michele Reiner previously confessed they ignored their son's complaints about rehab.
Rob previously acknowledged regrets about how he and his wife, Michele, handled their son's treatment.
"When Nick would tell us that it wasn't working for him, we wouldn't listen," the famous director admitted.
Michele added, "We were so influenced by these (treatment) people. They would tell us he's a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them."
As Nick awaits his next court appearance in January, those close to the case say his past words about therapy and addiction now carry a heavier weight.
"He spoke openly about how treatment can backfire," a family friend said. "What makes it especially heartbreaking is how clearly he voiced those concerns long before everything unraveled."
