Eric Dane's Sad Final Days: 'Grey's Anatomy' Alum 'Has 24/7 Nurses' as His Devastating ALS Battle 'Keeps Getting Worse'
Eric Dane's condition continues to get worse, in heartbreaking update.
Dec. 29 2025, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Eric Dane's wife, Rebecca Gayheart, has given a heartbreaking update on her husband's battle with the rare and fatal degenerative disease ALS, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The Grey's Anatomy alum, 53, is wheelchair bound and now requires around-the-clock nursing care, something Gayheart, 54, fought long and hard with an insurance company to secure.
24/7 Nursing Care
Dane found out he had ALS in March after his symptoms began to worsen.
"Eric has 24/7 nurses now,' Gayheart confessed in an essay published by The Cut on Monday, December 29.
"Just figuring out the health-care system is its own thing – the health-insurance company will deny you what you're asking for, and you have to appeal, and then you have to apply again. With the nurses, the woman from his insurance said to me, “You can keep applying, and I’ll keep denying," she recalled.
Gayheart said she finally succeeded after making it her "mission" to get the nursing care for Dane. "I was 'locked in,' as the kids would say. I crashed out, and then I locked it in. And we got it approved after two appeals."
Gayheart Takes Up the Caregiver Role When Needed
Gayheart covers caregiving shifts whenever the nurses aren't available.
Even with the nursing assistance, Gayheart still had to play caregiver.
"The week is divided into 21 shifts. There are times that shifts aren’t covered, so I cover them," she confessed.
"There was a 12-hour shift recently that I could not cover. I could only do four hours because of all the stuff that the kids are doing," she explained about their teenage daughters, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14.
Gayheart added, "So I had to call on two of Eric’s friends... And they both showed up and did a wonderful job."
Taking Advantage of the Time They Have Left
Rebecca Gayheart and their daughter still live in the family home that Eric moved out of after the duo split.
Gayheart and Dane still don't live together, as she filed for divorce in 2018 but dismissed the petition in March, one month before the Vikings star revealed his ALS diagnosis. In the essay, she said the pair haven't lived in the "same home for eight years."
"This year, the girls and I have spent a lot of time at Eric’s house, which is about a 12-minute drive away from our home," she confessed about how the duo maintains separate residences.
"We wanna take advantage of the time that he has right now. He made it very clear that he wants to spend time with his family as much as possible, and I am committed to facilitating that."
"Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love," Gayheart said of where things stand between the duo today.
"Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me."
'No Escaping' the Future
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Dane attended a 2024 movie premiere with daughters Billie and Georgia.
"Lately, I try to stay in the moment, even though there’s no escaping thinking about the future," Gayheart said about the inevitability that Dane will die from complications of ALS.
"I worry so much about my girls losing their father – they're going through this while experiencing all the pressures that are put on young girls, and I want to do everything in my power to give them the tools they’ll need," the Jawbreaker actress continued.
"They will be different because of this. I know that," Gayheart said while admitting that she's spent "so much time navigating everyone else’s emotions around this, I haven’t really sat down and investigated how I feel about things."
"I am trying very much to help my kids, Eric, myself, all of us to get through this knowing that death is a part of the life cycle," the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum confessed, as the average life expectancy for ALS patients after diagnosis is two to five years.
