Rebecca Gayheart unveils what actually happened when husband Eric Dane called her to reveal his ALS diagnosis

Rebecca Gayheart supported her husband, Eric Dane, after his ALS diagnosis came to light in April 2025.

For those unaware, the 54-year-old American actress and model tied the knot with Dane in 2004 and welcomed two children, Billie Beatrice and Georgia Geraldine.

After 14 years of marriage, Gayheart filed for divorce in February 2018. However, a month before Dane confirmed his diagnosis of ALS, they were spotted together many times, as she withdrew divorce. 

In December 2025, she wrote an essay titled In Sickness and in Health for The Cut, in which the Scream 2 star unveiled that she was the first person the Euphoria star called to inform her about his disease after visiting a neurologist in San Francisco.

She shared that they were “weeping,” adding, “It didn’t feel real because he was still okay.”

"I was here at home with my youngest daughter — my home, that I share with just the girls, since Eric and I separated in September 2017 — and I’d gone into my closet to take the call, trying to be private.”

"She was saying, 'Mommy, what’s wrong? What’s wrong?' I tried telling her, 'Honey, nothing. Everything’s fine,' because I couldn’t process it. I didn’t know all the details like I do now, but I knew enough about ALS to know that there wasn’t a cure,” Gayheart penned.

The Urban Legend actress went on to say that Dane’s symptoms had "started maybe a year prior."

"When we would have a meal with the kids, he’d say things like, 'Something’s wrong with my hand.’ He was struggling to use his chopsticks, dropping his food. That was when he started seeing doctors. He was initially diagnosed with a few other things, but he had this sinking feeling that it was something more serious,” Gayheart remembered.

ALS, also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, rare, terminal neurodegenerative disease that damages the spinal cord and brain.

It causes muscle to lose function, twitch, and waste away, which eventually leads to paralysis, difficulty in swallowing and speech, and respiratory failure within 3-5 years after the symptoms first started to appear.