Rebecca Gayheart talks 'complicated' parenting dynamic following Eric Dane's ALS diagnosis
Rebecca Gayheart Dane is opening up about Eric Dane's battle with ALS, formerly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, and how she and their teenage daughters Billie and Georgia, are supporting him day in and day out.
"I am definitely trying to show [Billie and Georgia] that we show up for people, no matter what, and [Dane] is our family. He is your father," the 54-year-old actress said in a new episode of the "Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen" podcast, posted Monday. "We show up and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it and that we will get through it the best we can."
Gayheart Dane and Dane married in October 2004. In 2018, Gayheart Dane filed for divorce, but she later requested to dismiss that petition in March 2025, a month before Dane went public about his ALS diagnosis. Gayheart Dane confirmed on the podcast that she and Dane have been separated for the last eight years.
Amid Dane's health challenges, Gayheart Dane said their family dynamic has been "super complicated" for her. However, despite it all, she added that she is choosing to stay optimistic and committed to modeling for her kids what it means to be a supportive family.
"I'm trying to learn from it and role model for them how to go through something like this, which is really hard," Gayheart Dane told co-hosts Bilson and Allen. "And I don't know if I'm doing it well or if I'm doing it 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 and I guess time will tell."
Dane revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. According to the National Institutes of Health, ALS is a neurological disorder where motor neurons or nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord deteriorate over time and causes progressive muscle weakness, eventually leading to paralysis and impacting a person's ability to move, speak or even breathe in the later stages of illness.
Dane talked about facing ALS in an interview with "Good Morning America" in June and said he and Gayheart Dane have grown closer, both as friends and parents, since his diagnosis.
"She is ... probably my biggest champion and my most stalwart supporter," Dane said at the time. "And I lean on her."
"At the end of the day, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit if I can," Dane added. "I don't think this is the end of my story. I just don't feel like, in my heart, I don't feel like this is the end of me."
Since then, Dane has become an ALS advocate, and in September, he released a video message with I AM ALS, a patient-led movement calling for more funding for ALS research and pushing for a cure for the disease.
Gayheart Dane said on Monday's podcast that as her family continues to navigate this difficult journey together, she hopes her daughters will take away an important lesson.
"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 and that this is life," the mom of two said.
"You never know what you're going to get, and we should treat today as a really special day," she added. "This isn't a dress rehearsal. This is it."
