Rebecca Gayheart Recalls Eric Dane’s Final Hospital Days

Gayheart said she and her daughters, Billie and Georgia, initially expected Dane to recover from his final hospital visit, as he had after earlier admissions. By the third day, however, the doctors’ tone and the information they shared made clear that his condition had changed. Dane died on February 19, within a year of revealing he had ALS.

In an interview with Maria Shriver, Gayheart said the family had not understood that the hospital trip would be their last week with him. Though Dane was losing physical abilities, he remained mentally engaged and was aware of the seriousness of his condition, she said. He made choices about how his final days would unfold.

Gayheart and the couple’s daughters stayed with him in his hospital room, making the space more familiar with battery-powered candles and his favorite music. She said the experience was overwhelming and that there was no predictable path for the illness or its final stages.

Dane’s posthumous book, titled My Book of Days: A Memoir of Moments, became available November 3. In it, he described seeking treatment after losing use of his right hand. Doctors initially diagnosed multifocal motor neuropathy, a condition for which he received immunoglobulin treatment, but it did not help. Further tests eventually led to his ALS diagnosis.

Gayheart and Dane married in 2004 and had two daughters. She filed for divorce in 2018, but withdrew the petition in 2025 amid his health problems.