Rebecca Gayheart talks about Eric Dane’s final days, timed for the release of Grey’s Anatomy the star’s posthumous memoirs, My book of the days.
Dane died in February, less than a year after announcing his ALS diagnosis.
The actress, who married Dane in 2004 before divorcing in 2018 and divorcing in 2025, said she did not initially realize that the Euphoria The actor’s final trip to the hospital would mark the beginning of the end.
“He had been to the hospital so many times before, and they would nurse him back to health, so to speak, and he would come home,” Gayheart said in an interview with Maria Shriver, portions of which aired on Tuesday’s episode of the NBC show. Todaywith additional material posted on Today.com. “And everything would be fine with him. And we would go back to the normal routine, which changed from week to week.”
And that’s how she approached her final trip to the hospital.
“I said, ‘Look, I’ll be back. I have a dinner. I’m going to this event.’ I didn’t know that this was it, that this week was going to be our last week,” Gayheart said. “And neither did my girls. It really took us a few days to understand the gravity of what that last trip to the hospital meant.”
But after a few days in the hospital, things started to get serious.
“I think it was like the third day in the hospital where it changed,” Gayheart said. “Everything changed. Just the tone in which the doctors spoke to us and some of the information we were given.”
Even though Dane knew he was dying, Gayheart was surprised by how quickly it happened.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Well, at least you knew that and you could have those last conversations,'” she said. “But we didn’t know that, because there is no road map. No one can tell you what the journey will be like because it is very different for each patient.
“He was becoming more alive mentally, but losing all his physical abilities. And for the girls, it was also very difficult to watch. But overall it’s a blur, because it was so upsetting.”
Still, the family continued their sleepover in Dane’s hospital room.
“The girls and I just camped there with him and had family sleepovers,” she said. “And we brought these little candles that aren’t real candles. They have batteries. And we played her favorite music, and we tried to make it as pleasant as possible in the hospital room.”
Watch more of Gayheart’s interview with Shriver in the videos below.
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