After eight years apart, Eric Dane’s estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart opened up about their ‘super complicated’ relationship — and revealed where their two daughters are living — as she navigates his ALS diagnosis.
The actress, 54, who married Dane in 2004 and quietly dismissed her 2018 divorce filing in March, appeared on the Broad Ideas podcast on Monday and discussed how she’s been guiding their kids, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, through the crisis.
Gayheart said she’s been reminding her daughters that ‘we show up for people no matter what’ as their dad’s disease progresses.
‘He is our family. He is your father,’ she told them after Dane revealed his diagnosis in April. ‘We show up, and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it.’
Still, she acknowledged her relationship with Dane is ‘super complicated.’
‘We’ve been separated for eight years. The kids live with me 100 percent of the time,’ she continued. ‘There’s been lots of just stuff, other stuff, but I try to stay optimistic about it all.’
After eight years apart, Eric Dane ’s estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart opened up about their separation and where their two young daughters are living during his health struggle.; (pictured 2016)
The actress, 54, who married Dane in 2004, appeared on the Broad Ideas podcast on Monday and shared how she’s been navigating Dane’s ALS diagnosis with their kids, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13; (pictured 2017)
‘I’m trying to learn from it and [be a] role model for them [for] how to go through something like this, which is really hard.’
She added, ‘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.’
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare and incurable motor neuron disorder that affects around 5,000 Americans each year.
Symptoms often progress rapidly and can be difficult to detect early on.
Dane first noticed weakness in his right hand in early 2024, thinking he’d ‘been texting too much or my hand was fatigued.’
Months of testing and visits to multiple specialists confirmed the devastating truth: an official ALS diagnosis in April.
By June, he had lost use of his right arm.
Gayheart said during Monday’s podcast that she tells her daughters they will ‘get through it the best we can’ as a family.
Gayheart revealed she’s been telling her daughters, ‘we show up for people no matter what’ as their dad’s disease progresses; (pictured May 2024)
‘We’ve been separated for eight years. The kids live with me 100 percent of the time,’ she explained. ‘There’s been lots of just stuff, other stuff but I try to stay optimistic, though, about it all’
‘They’re good girls who are just going through a lot,’ she added.
It’s been a difficult journey, she admitted.
‘Listen, I am definitely experiencing growth as a person, as a human being. It’s all very humbling,’ Gayheart said.
‘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.’
She added, ‘This is life. Life, sadly, is just moments good and bad, strung together. … You never know what you’re gonna get, and we should treat today as a really special day. This isn’t a dress rehearsal.’
Gayheart’s focus is on giving her daughters ‘the opportunity to spend time with’ Dane, ‘so that they don’t ever look back and go, “I wish I would have spent some time with my dad.”‘
Their story began in 2003, when Gayheart, fresh from a long-term relationship with producer Brett Ratner and starring in Nip/Tuck, met Dane, who was still climbing the Hollywood ladder after small roles in Saved by the Bell, The Wonder Years, and Roseanne.
They tied the knot in Las Vegas just ten months later, in 2004.
‘We’ve been separated for eight years. The kids live with me 100 percent of the time,’ she explained. ‘There’s been lots of just stuff, other stuff but I try to stay optimistic, though, about it all’
Gayheart surprised her Instagram followers when she revealed in October that she got a ‘mini face lift’
Their marriage weathered storms, including a scandal in 2009 when a private tape featuring the couple and model Kari Ann Peniche was leaked online.
Though it didn’t depict sex, the trio was seen partying and lounging together in a hot tub.
Dane and Gayheart sued Gawker, later settling out of court in 2010.
Despite controversy, they moved forward together, welcoming daughter Billie in 2010 and Georgia in 2011.
Behind the scenes, Dane quietly battled addiction.
He started smoking marijuana as a teen, got sober at 26, but relapsed under the pressures of fame during Grey’s Anatomy and the 2007 Writer’s Guild strike.
He entered rehab in 2011 for painkiller addiction, admitting, ‘If you take the whole eight years I was on Grey’s Anatomy, I was f***ed up longer than I was sober and that was when things started going sideways for me.’
By 2018, his marriage to Gayheart had run its course, and she filed for divorce after 14 years together.
In a joint statement, they said ending their marriage was ‘the best decision’ for their family and pledged to remain close as co-parents.
‘There’s a new normal for me and my family,’ Gayheart said a year after the split. ‘It hasn’t been easy. But I think what’s exciting is what’s ahead… my kids are happy and healthy.’
When Dane received his ALS diagnosis, Gayheart reportedly halted the divorce process and recommitted to being by his side.
‘We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great co-parents,’ she said at the time. ‘We really figured out the formula to staying a family… I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it and we are as well.’
She added, ‘I think it’s important to not look at a relationship that ends as a failure… It was a huge success… We had two beautiful kids, so I think that’s a successful relationship.’
