Martin Short's Daughter's Suicide Exposes Dark Nick Reiner Link

Hollywood is once again confronting grief after the devastating loss of Martin Short’s daughter, Katherine, who died by suicide on Monday at age 42. 

As the industry processes the tragedy, painful new details have surfaced about her long battle with depression and an unexpected connection to another recent horror. 

Behind the headlines lies a decades-old friendship between two famous families, now shadowed by heartbreak on both sides.

For years, Martin Short and Rob Reiner were part of the same tight-knit Hollywood circle. Their friendship placed their children side by side from an early age. 

Short and his late wife, Nancy Dolman, settled in Pacific Palisades in the 1980s, raising Katherine alongside her brothers Oliver and Henry. 

Just minutes away in Brentwood, the Reiners were doing the same with their children, Jake, Nick, and Romy. According to a source who spoke to the Daily Mail, the families were inseparable. 

The source said, “Martin and Rob were very close. They were in each other’s inner circle, and they lived not far from each other.” 

Holidays blended into birthday parties and dinner gatherings. The children grew up in each other’s homes, spending weekends together as part of one extended social circle.

Although there was a 10-year age gap between Katherine and Nick Reiner, they reportedly formed one of the closest bonds in the group. 

Growing up in the shadow of famous fathers created a unique connection between them, one built on navigating expectations and carving out identities of their own.

Katherine made deliberate efforts to step away from her father, Martin Short’s fame. In 2012, she legally changed her name to Katherine Hartley. 

In court documents, she explained the decision plainly, noting, “My father is a public figure. I am a psychiatric social worker. I am concerned about potential harassment from future patients resulting from my association with my father.”

Her professional path reflected that desire for independence. She trained as a licensed clinical social worker, worked as a therapist, and volunteered with charities. 

She also left Los Angeles to attend New York University, creating physical and emotional distance from Hollywood before eventually returning to Southern California.

Her brothers chose to remain in Pacific Palisades as adults, but Katherine settled in the Hollywood Hills. 

The move subtly shifted her once-close friendship with Nick, who in recent years had been living in the guest house on his parents’ Brentwood property.

Still, the emotional weight of being the child of a celebrity never fully disappeared. As one source put it, “Katherine and Nick bonded over being the children of famous people.” 

They both struggled with finding individuality in an industry that constantly linked them to their fathers.

Both Katherine and Nick faced serious mental health challenges over the years. Katherine reportedly checked into inpatient facilities multiple times during particularly low periods. 

Rande Levine, founder of Karma Rescue, the dog charity where Katherine served on the board, described how she would step back when necessary. 

“She’d say, ‘I won’t be around, I’m going away.’ She’d go check into some place to boost her up again,” Levine shared.

Nick’s struggles were different but equally severe. He battled drug addiction and entered rehab at least 18 times. 

The insider close to the families emphasized that neither Short nor Rob could be blamed for their children’s pain. 

“Martin and Rob really looked out for their kids, they were great parents,” the source said, adding that Katherine and Nick “were broken in their own ways.”

The shared vulnerability between them may have strengthened their early bond. However, as adulthood brought separate paths and mounting pressures, the closeness they once had began to fade.

Last December, tragedy struck the Reiner family when Rob and his wife were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home. 

Nick was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

The news sent shockwaves through their social circle. “Katherine was very upset when Rob and his wife died,” a source said. “It was depressing, it really got to the whole [friend] group, so dark, so evil and twisted.” 

According to the insider, the therapist felt “repulsed by Nick over the murders,” and the situation weighed heavily on her already fragile mental health.

The emotional toll extended beyond the immediate families. Their shared circle included Billy Crystal, Steven Spielberg, Larry David, Eugene Levy, and Conan O’Brien. 

The violent deaths fractured a community that had spent decades celebrating milestones together.

For Katherine, the arrest of someone who had once been a childhood confidant reportedly intensified her struggles. She was found deceased in her home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound two months later. 

Katherine’s death comes amid a series of losses within the same Hollywood circle.

Another close family friend, Catherine O’Hara, died on January 30 at age 71. 

O’Hara had attended Katherine’s 40th birthday party in 2023, along with Levy, Spielberg, and Kurt Russell.

Levy’s son, Dan, was the same age as Katherine, reflecting how intertwined the families remained over the years. 

On Tuesday evening, Spielberg, Levy, and Russell were seen supporting Martin Short as he faced the unimaginable loss of his daughter. 

The same group that once gathered for celebrations in Pacific Palisades and Brentwood now finds itself connected by grief, bound by decades of friendship, and shaken by multiple tragedies that unfolded within their inner circle.