Eric Dane has never been more grateful for Rebecca Gayheart.
The “Euphoria” actor, 52, gushed over his wife of 21 years as he opened up about his ALS diagnosis for the first time on “Good Morning America” Monday.
“I talk to her every day,” Dane said about Gayheart, 53, while tearing up. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents, and she is probably my biggest champion. My most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her.”
Dane and Gayheart got married in 2004 in Las Vegas. They share daughters Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13.
In Feb. 2018, Gayheart filed for divorce from the “Grey’s Anatomy” alum after 14 years of marriage.
At the time she filed, the “Urban Legend” star cited irreconcilable differences as the reason behind their split. She requested spousal support and joint legal and physical custody of their girls.
“After 14 years together we have decided that ending our marriage is the best decision for our family,” Dane said in a statement at the time.
“We will continue our friendship and work as a team to co-parent our two beautiful girls as they are the most important thing in the world to us. We kindly ask that you respect our privacy during this time as we navigate the next phase of our lives.”
But in March, one month before Dane revealed his ALS diagnosis, Gayheart dismissed the divorce.
“We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great coparents,” Gayheart told E! News in April. “We really figured out the formula to staying a family and I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it and we are as well.”
On “GMA,” Dane explained that he’s “angry” about his diagnosis.
“My father was taken from me when I was young and now there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young,” said Dane, who was 7 years old when his father was shot and killed.
“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 continued. “They’re loved. They know it.”
While opening up about the devastating effects of his ALS diagnosis, Dane recounted the time that one of his daughters rescued him from drowning when he lost functionality in his legs when they were snorkeling.
“She dragged me back to the boat,” Dane recalled. “I was like, breaking down in tears. I made sure she got back to the water with her friend and continued on with the snorkeling. I was just heartbroken.”
He experienced his first system more than a year and a half ago when he had weakness in his right hand. “I didn’t really think anything of it at the time,” Dane told Sawyer. “I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued, but a few weeks later I noticed it got a little worse. So I went and saw a hand specialist, who sent me to another hand specialist. I went and saw a neurologist and the neurologist sent me to another neurologist and said, ‘This is way above my pay grade.’”
A rare degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, ALS causes progressive loss of muscle control. It is often called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the famed baseball player who suffered from the condition.
There is no known cure for ALS.
