The Moment
Jane Fonda, 88 years old and still working like she’s got a standing date with the 1970s, was photographed arriving at LAX this week being pushed in a wheelchair to her gate.
She was dressed exactly how you’d expect Jane Fonda to fly: lush fur coat, bronze-tinted butterfly sunglasses, gold jewelry, silver bob curled just so. Two small bags in her lap, the rest on a luggage trolley, and an airline staffer handling the long trek through the terminal.
On its face, it’s an everyday travel moment for an octogenarian icon. But the photos are being framed alongside something much darker: the recent stabbing deaths of her friends Rob and Michele Reiner, an older Hollywood couple she said she saw alive and well the night before they were killed.
In an Instagram post shared after their bodies were found, Fonda called the Reiners “wonderful, caring, smart, funny, generous people” and said she was “reeling with grief” and “stunned.” Now, her airport wheelchair and her heartbreak are being packaged together as one big drama.
The Take
I have to be honest: I’m far less interested in the wheelchair than in why we’re obsessing over it.
At 88, using an airport wheelchair is not a scandal. It’s common sense. Those terminals are basically cardio marathons with fluorescent lighting. Plenty of much younger people request chairs when the walk is long, the connection is tight, or the joints are simply over it.
But we have this cultural tic where a woman over 70 sits in a wheelchair and suddenly it’s treated like a breaking medical mystery. Add in the words “Hollywood legend,” and boom: everyone starts searching for clues of decline.
The layered tragedy here isn’t Jane in a chair. It’s that a horrific double homicide is being used as emotional wallpaper for a routine travel sighting. Fonda is grieving the violent deaths of close friends. That’s the real story, not whether her gait can survive LAX.
According to the reporting, the Reiners’ son Nick, a 32-year-old with a documented history of substance struggles and reported mental health issues, had a loud fight with his parents at a party shortly before they were found stabbed to death. Various unnamed sources describe a chaotic scene, a host called “Conan” allegedly resisting calls to involve police, and months of the couple privately confiding how worried they were.
That’s heavy. It’s also unfinished; their son has reportedly been arrested in connection with the deaths and is awaiting trial. There is nothing glamorous here. No clever twist. Just a family destroyed and a community in shock.
And yet, the coverage still finds room to lovingly catalogue Fonda’s sunglasses and skin care while dropping in gruesome crime details like it’s a grim little accessory. It’s like watching someone try to sell you a cashmere sweater in the middle of a wake.
Here’s how I see it: Jane’s wheelchair moment is a Rorschach test for how we treat aging women and grief. Some will see weakness. Some will see dignity. What we should see is a human being who’s had a brutal month, navigating both mortality and security lines, and choosing comfort over performance.
We don’t need to turn every mobility aid into a referendum on “how she’s really doing.” Sometimes a wheelchair is just a wheelchair-and grief is more than a headline vibe check.
Receipts
Confirmed:
- Fonda was photographed being pushed in a wheelchair through Los Angeles International Airport, wearing a fur coat, large sunglasses, and carrying small bags on her lap, in agency photos published by a major UK tabloid on January 18, 2026.
- Rob and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in December; Fonda wrote on Instagram afterward that they were “wonderful, caring, smart, funny, generous people,” that she had seen them looking “healthy and happy” the night before, and that she was “reeling with grief” and “stunned.”
- The Reiners’ adult son Nick has publicly documented past struggles with addiction, and coverage around the case describes him as having a history of substance abuse and a reported mental health diagnosis.
- Image captions running with the airport story state that Nick has been arrested in connection with his parents’ deaths and is now awaiting trial, indicating an active criminal case rather than speculation.
Unverified / Reported-only:
- Claims that Nick had a “very loud” argument with his parents at a party shortly before their deaths come from unnamed sources quoted in entertainment news coverage.
- One celebrity weekly is cited as the source of a quote that Nick was “freaking everyone out” and repeatedly asking guests if they were famous.
- An unnamed insider told one outlet that a party host identified only as “Conan” allegedly stopped guests from calling the police, saying it was “my house, my party.” That account has not been confirmed on the record by the host or law enforcement.
- Suggestions that Michele had been telling friends for months that the couple had “tried everything” to help their son are based on friends’ reported comments, not public statements from the family.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you’re not fully steeped in this circle of Hollywood royalty, here’s the short version. Jane Fonda is a two-time Oscar-winning actress and long-time activist, daughter of classic film star Henry Fonda. Rob Reiner, a director and actor, is the son of legendary comedy writer and producer Carl Reiner; he grew up in the industry, even lending his first name to the character Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Fonda recently helped relaunch the Committee for the First Amendment, a group first founded in 1947 by her father and other artists to oppose the Hollywood blacklist during the Red Scare. Rob and Michele Reiner were reportedly involved in supporting that relaunch; Fonda wrote that they were “always coming up with ideas for how to make the world better, kinder.” Their sudden, violent deaths have clearly shaken her, and much of Hollywood, to the core.
What’s Next
Legally, the Reiner case is still unfolding. Their son is reportedly in custody and awaiting trial, which means a lot of what’s swirling right now-who said what at which party, who tried to call police, who didn’t-will either be clarified in court or quietly dropped.
For Fonda, life doesn’t exactly slow down. She’s still acting, still marching, still posting, still using her platform to push political causes and now the revived Committee for the First Amendment. If history is any guide, she’ll likely speak more about the Reiners when she’s ready, and she tends to be candid when she does.
The more immediate “next,” though, is on us: whether we can learn to see images of older celebrities using mobility help without spinning disaster theories, and whether we can separate our fascination with Hollywood style from the very real violence and mental health crises lurking in the background.
Jane Fonda getting rolled through LAX isn’t a scandal. It’s a snapshot of what late-life stardom actually looks like: glamorous, grieving, practical, and still catching flights.
So how did that airport photo land for you-normal aging in motion, or did the wheelchair change how you read Fonda’s strength right now?
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