In his posthumous memoir, Eric Dane described the emotional moment he told his estranged wife, Rebecca Gayheart, that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in his posthumous memoir.
Dane died on February 19 at the age of 53, less than a year after publicly revealing his ALS diagnosis in April 2025.
According to an excerpt from his forthcoming book, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments, shared by People, Dane called Gayheart after a life-changing appointment with his doctor and told her, ‘It’s what we feared.’
The Grey’s Anatomy star wrote, ‘I don’t remember a single word I said after that,’ recalling that Gayheart was ‘wailing on the other end of the phone.’
‘My sobs make my body shudder, and I hear her words pouring out amid her tears, “I’m here, we’ll fight this together, I’m not going anywhere,”‘ Dane wrote.
Dane and Gayheart married in October 2004 and separated in September 2017. In a surprising turn, they called off their divorce in March 2025 – just one month before Dane publicly announced his ALS diagnosis.
Eric Dane recalled telling estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart about his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis in his posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments; pictured in August 2024
Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart married in October 2004, separated in September 2017 and called off their divorce in March 2025 – one month before Dane announced his ALS diagnosis; pictured in June 2015
The former couple share two daughters, Georgia, 14, and Billie, 16.
Dane said his daughters became his motivation to remain strong. ‘I’m going to take this on. I’m going to fight. I’m going to show my girls how to walk through this life with grace and dignity, no matter what. I am going to FIGHT.
‘This has become my purpose. My reason. This is now my job.’
In another passage from the forthcoming memoir, the late actor reflected on the breakdown of his marriage to Gayheart, which he said was partly linked to his struggles with substance abuse.
‘My work hours, my addiction complications, the times I’m away, the times I’m here but not here,’ Dane wrote, listing what contributed to the strain in their relationship.
He acknowledged that these issues ‘all weigh on Rebecca, smother her, disappoint her, infuriate her. I get it, I see it, I don’t fight it.’
Despite the end of their marriage, Dane said they had remained close. ‘We’ve since stayed close, co-parenting, going on vacations as a family, spending time together and now we talk every day.’
In a December 2025 essay for The Cut, Gayheart said her love for Dane was no longer romantic, describing it instead as ‘familial.’
Eric Dane’s posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments, is scheduled for release on November 3
Rebecca Gayheart is raising the couple’s daughters, Georgia (L), 14, and Billie (R), 16; pictured in March
Before his death, Dane also spoke warmly about Gayheart in his emotional Netflix special, Famous Last Words: Eric Dane.
The two-part program, which was partly executive produced by Brad Falchuk, was recorded by Dane in secret.
In the final interview, he declared about Gayheart: ‘I will have never, by the time anyone sees this, fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca.’
He also said about his wife: ‘I think Rebecca was more willing to show up and do her part than I was.
‘I don’t have that gene that just makes you wanna keep going regardless of what happens. I’m like, “If there’s a hole in the boat, don’t try to patch the hole.” Scuttle the damn thing and find a new one.’
And he insisted that he and his estranged wife were ‘still really best friends.’
‘We still love each other deeply. I just think we don’t wanna live with each other. But there’s a lot of love there,’ he emphasized.
In her essay last year, Gayheart said: ‘We had a really lovely marriage for a long time – we were married for 15 years – we created two beautiful girls.
‘But also, lots of s**t went crazy in our relationship, and it wasn’t good. We separated, but we never got a divorce; we were about to and then we didn’t. We haven’t lived in the same home for eight years; he’s dated other people, I’ve dated someone.’
‘It’s a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people,’ she acknowledged.
