Rebecca Gayheart Details Eric Dane’s Final Week of Life: ‘Had No Idea That Was It’

When the camera cuts, the interview isn’t over. With “Cut for Time,” TODAY.com spotlights the questions our anchors couldn’t get to on air.Rebecca Gayheart has opened up about the final days of husband Eric Dane’s life, from family sleepovers in his room to having “no idea that was it” during his last trip to the hospital. Dane died at 53 in February, less than one year after publicly announcing he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Gayheart, 55, spoke with NBC special correspondent Maria Shriver on TODAY Nov. 3, the release day for Dane’s posthumous memoir, “My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments.” The actor shared how she and their two daughters “never, ever anticipated” that they would lose him in February. “He had gone to the hospital so many times before, and they would patch him up, so to speak, and he would come home,” Gayheart said. “And he’d be OK. And we’d go back to the normal routine, which did change week by week.” She recalled the first day of Dane’s final trip to the hospital. “I said, ‘Listen, I’ll be back. I have a dinner. I’m going to this event.’ I had no idea that that was it, that that week was going to be our last week,” Gayheart said. “And nor did my daughters. It really took a few days for us to understand the gravity of what that last trip to the hospital meant.” Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart.Paul Redmond / WireImageGayheart and Dane married in 2004 and filed for divorce in 2018. Gayheart filed to have the divorce dismissed in 2025. They co-parented their daughters, and she was by his bedside in his final week. The actor and model and their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14, began to realize the gravity of the situation after a couple of days.“I think it was like day three in the hospital where it shifted,” Gayheart said. “Everything shifted. Just the tone of when the doctors were talking to us, and some of the information we were given.”Dane also recognized how serious things were getting.“He was fully aware it was shifting, and he was still communicating with us,” Gayheart said. “Not well verbally, but I could understand him most of the time. The kids could most of the time, his closest friends.”Friends of the couple who are doctors helped Gayheart navigate that emotional time, during which she said she suffered from “decision fatigue.” She said Dane knew he was dying. “It was figuring it out as we went,” she said. “But I remember the moment Eric decided to make some choices, and he did. ... He was in control of the way he was going to leave.” To comfort the “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria” actor in his final days, Gayheart and their daughters conducted their usual family sleepover in Dane’s hospital room. Rebecca Gayheart, Eric Dane and their daughters in 2015.David Livingston / Getty Images“The girls and I just camped out there with him, and we had our family sleepovers,” she said. “And we brought in those little candles that aren’t real candles. They have batteries. And we played his favorite music, and we tried to make it as nice as you can be in the hospital room.” Gayheart was unprepared for how swiftly the end came. “A lot of people will say, ‘Well, at least you knew, and you could have those last conversations,’” she said. “But we didn’t know, because there is no road map. No one can tell you what the journey looks like because it’s so different for every patient.“He was becoming more alive mentally, but losing all of his physical abilities. And for the girls, that was really hard to watch as well. But overall, it’s a blur, because it was just so overwhelming.” In the wide-ranging conversation, Gayheart also spoke to Shriver about Dane’s posthumous book, his decision to go public about his ALS diagnosis, her struggles in becoming a caregiver, the moment she found out he had ALS and how their daughters are faring in the wake of his death.“He became a different person in a way,” Gayheart said. “He really valued his life suddenly, and every minute of how he was going to spend his life and what he was going to do with his days.”