Rebecca Gayheart is opening up about her “super complicated” relationship with estranged husband Eric Dane as he continues to battle amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
During an appearance on the “Broad Ideas Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen” podcast, Gayheart, who shares daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, with Dane, spoke candidly about navigating Dane’s illness and explained how she manages to put on a united front for the sake of their children.
“I am definitely trying to show [my daughters] that we show up for people no matter what. And he is our family, he is your father. We show up, and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it, and that we will get through it the best we can,” she said. “I mean, it’s super complicated for me.”
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In 2018, Gayheart filed for divorce from the actor after 14 years of marriage. However, weeks before Dane publicly announced his diagnosis, Gayheart dismissed the filing in March 2025.
Though Gayheart and Dane have “been separated for eight years,” she continues to try and “stay optimistic” for her two children.
“I don’t know if I’m doing it well or if I’m doing it in the wrong way or the right way. I’m just showing up. I’m showing up, and I’m trying to be there for them. I guess time will tell,” she said.
Gayheart said the experience has been “very humbling” for her in many ways.
“I’m definitely experiencing growth as a person, as a human being,” she said. “It’s all very humbling. I think one piece of this that I hope I’m passing to my kids is the idea that you can show up for someone and be there for them, but you also have to show up for yourself, and that this is life. Life, sadly, is just moments, good and bad strung together.”
She said of her daughters, “I just want to make sure I provide them with the opportunity to spend time with him, so that they don’t ever look back and go, ‘I wish I would have spent more time with my dad’ or ‘I wish I would have, you know, said this to him or asked him these questions or been there for him in a different kind of way.’
“I don’t know what their takeaway will be,” she added. “I know it’s super complicated right now for so many reasons.”
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Dane announced his ALS diagnosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in April 2025.
ALS is a “nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
It causes loss of muscle control as well as breathing and eating problems and can cause dementia.
“I have been diagnosed with ALS,” he said in a statement to People at the time. “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter. I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of ‘Euphoria’ next week. I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time.”
During an interview on “Good Morning America” in June, Dane said he was prepared to go to great measures to fight ALS.
“I will fly to Germany and eat the head off a rattlesnake if [doctors] told me that that would help,” the 53-year-old “Grey’s Anatomy” alum told Diane Sawyer at the time. “I’ll assume the risk.”
During the interview, Dane opened up about the debilitating disease and explained how he’s found hope in the physician who has been leading his care.
“I’m very hopeful. … I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he said. “And whether it is or it isn’t, I’m going to carry that idea with me.
“That’s what I got from [Dr. Merit Cudkowicz] when I met her. … There was a sense of hope I didn’t get from other doctors that I met with,” Dane said of his doctor, a neurologist and leading ALS researcher.
Dane said he had spoken previously with an organization that told him his doctors would be “there to … monitor my decline — and that’s not very helpful.”
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Dane said in another segment of the interview that he first started experiencing weakness in his right hand before seeking medical attention.
“I didn’t really think anything of it at the time,” he told Sawyer. “I thought maybe I’d been texting too much and my hand was fatigued. A few weeks later, I noticed it’d gotten a little worse. I went and saw a hand specialist, who sent me to another hand specialist. I went and saw a neurologist, and the neurologist sent me to another neurologist and said, ‘This is way above my pay grade.’
“I have one functioning arm,” he said. “My left side is functioning. My right side has completely stopped working. [My left arm] is going. I feel like maybe a couple, a few more months, and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”
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He said that, for now, he is able to walk, but added, “I’m worried about my legs.”
In September, Dane spoke with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., about ALS advances.
“ALS is the last thing they want to diagnose anybody with. So often, it takes all this time for these people to be diagnosed, well, then it precludes them from being a part of these clinical trials,” he told Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., in a video the lawmaker posted to TikTok.
The “Euphoria” star was at the Capitol to advocate for Congress reauthorizing the ACT for ALS law, which expands access to treatments and expires next year, according to WJAR-TV.
“I have two daughters at home,” he added. “I want to see them, you know, graduate college, and get married and maybe have grandkids, you know? I want to be there for all that. So, I’m going to fight to the last breath on this one.”
Dane was also seen in a wheelchair leaving a D.C. airport in September.
When asked by a photographer if he had a message for his fans, Dane said, “Keep the faith.”
