Eric Dane's Widow Rebecca Gayheart Recalls Heartbreaking Final Conversation With ALS-Stricken Star Who Secretly Linked Up with AI Firm to Restore Voice
Rebecca Gayheart has revealed her final conversation with husband Eric Dane before his tragic death from ALS aged just 53.
March 12 2026, Published 4:24 p.m. ET
Eric Dane's wife Rebecca Gayheart has recalled her heartbreaking last days with the Grey's Anatomy star before his death earlier this month aged 53.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Gayheart, 54, opened up about her struggle to communicate with the ALS-stricken actor, who was robbed of his speech during the latter stages of his battle with the disease.
Why Did Dane Team Up With AI Company?
Dane hoped to restore voice to make farewell videos to his kids.
She told Variety that Dane, in his last weeks, was involved with a project by the AI company ElevenLabs that was designed to restore his voice.
Gayheart said he pursued the experimental technology not just to communicate in daily life, but also so that he would be able to leave a final message to their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
She said her husband "was really excited about it, because he was losing his voice, and it was becoming more difficult for him to communicate each and every day. So, it became sort of urgent."
Weeks before Dane's death, he was able to hear the version of his voice that the AI company had created, and Gayheart recalled how emotional it made both of them to hear him be able to speak flawlessly again.
How Did Dane React to Hearing 'New' Voice?
Gayheart said Dane 'became visibly emotional' after hearing his AI voice.
She said: "He was waiting anxiously to hear it, and when we got it from ElevenLabs it was a really big moment. It was a powerful moment."
"We played it, and Eric became visibly emotional," she continued. "And when I heard it, I cried. I think everyone in the room did."
Gayheart then revealed that she and Dane were able to play his newly created voice recording for their daughters a few days after they received it.
"They were like, that’s not a recording. That’s your voice. That’s you. So it was spot on," she said. "He just had this way of speaking, and they captured it so beautifully."
She said that Billie and Georgia "signed off on it, and we were thrilled to have it because we knew what was coming down the pike."
'He Wasn't Able to Express Things'
Gayheart said her husband 'lost part of himself' when he could no longer speak.
"We were all really struggling with the voice loss that he was already experiencing," the actress admitted. "Knowing we had that in our back pocket just felt really good."
"I'm sad, and I know Eric is too, that we didn't ever get to really use it," Gayheart said, though she added that she was certain Dane would want as many people as possible to be able to take advantage of the technology.
She said that it could be essential for stars like Dane because "your voice is such a big part of your craft and you're a storyteller."
"He really understood how meaningful having the voice was," Gayheart said. "As his speech started to decrease, his ability to speak went away. He did lose a certain part of himself. He wasn’t able to express things in his own very special way.
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Gayheart said herself and daughters, Billie and Georgia, stayed close to Dane during his illness.
"So he really understood how meaningful it was and the extraordinary honor giving someone back their voice and what that would feel like for others, and he wanted to make sure that he did everything he could do to make that happen."
She added that she was certain Dane would be "happy" with the technology and the series of short documentaries tracing the lives of people turning to it.
Had Gayheart and Dane — who was cremated last Friday — never legally separated between 2018-2025, they would've been married for 21 years.
However, Dane had been dating photographer Janell Shirtcliff since 2022 while the Jawbreaker alum publicly kissed Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Peter Morton, 78, at E Baldi in Beverly Hills on December 3.
