Celebrity

Sally Struthers Reacts to ‘All in the Family’ Co-Star Rob Reiner’s Death

Sally Struthers is mourning the “devastating” loss of her All in the Family co-star Rob Reiner after the legendary director and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their Brentwood home Sunday.

“There are no words,” Struthers, who played Gloria Stivic on the classic sitcom opposite Reiner’s Michael Stivic, told Deadline. “This is beyond devastating and my heart is with their family.”

Videos by PopCulture.com

ALL IN THE FAMILY. Rob Reiner as Mike Stivic and Sally Struthers as Gloria Bunker Stivic. Image dated 1979. (Credit: CBS Photo Archive)

Struthers and Reiner played husband and wife on eight seasons of the CBS sitcom from 1971 to 1978, but left the show after their characters ultimately split up. At the 2024 Emmy Awards, the two former co-stars reunited on stage for a tribute to the show’s creator, Norman Lear.

In April 2025, Struthers spoke candidly about working with Reiner on an episode of Celebrity Drop, revealing that he would edit the show’s scripts during table reads to account for the audience’s laughter.

“Rob Reiner was light-years ahead of everyone with what to do. He would say, ‘Alright, everybody, go to page two. You see Edith [Jean Stapleton] and Archie’s [Carroll O’Connor] lines at the bottom of that page. You can cut it. You won’t miss them. It doesn’t ruin a joke,’” she recalled, adding that while the writers and Lear initially resisted Reiner’s edits, they “quickly learned Rob was correct.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 15: (L-R) Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers speak onstage during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on January 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Reiner’s cuts also rubbed Struthers the wrong way at first when her lines were on the chopping block, but she recalled her on-screen husband advising her to focus on “the success of each of the episodes” instead of the number of lines she had.

“I forced myself to have that attitude. And after that, I was offering to give up lines. He fixed the whole thing for me. That’s a very smart guy,” she said.

After leaving All in the Family after its eighth season, Struthers said Reiner would call her “once in a while” with a unique greeting. “He wouldn’t say hello. He would just start a joke and then he’d say it and then he’d hang up,” she remembered with a laugh.

The bodies of Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered in their home Sunday afternoon, having suffered multiple stab wounds. Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was taken into custody in connection with their deaths.