Rebecca Gayheart has opened up about her decision to withdraw her divorce filing from Eric Dane after the actor was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dane’s widow shared the details during an interview while promoting the actor’s posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments.
Gayheart filed for divorce from Dane in 2018 after nearly 14 years of marriage. In March 2025, she requested that the divorce petition be dismissed, as they continued raising their daughters together.
A lesson for their daughters
Speaking on the Broad Ideas podcast in November 2025, Gayheart explained that she wanted to teach their daughters the importance of supporting family members through difficult times. Dane publicly revealed his ALS diagnosis in April 2025, and the couple’s decision to stand together through his illness became a defining part of his final year.
Dane, best known for playing Dr Mark Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy, died on February 19, 2026, at the age of 53. His memoir, released posthumously, has given fans a final window into his life and career.
A marriage remembered
Gayheart’s interview reframes a story that, on paper, looked like another Hollywood divorce. Instead, it became a story of a family choosing solidarity in the face of a devastating diagnosis. Her decision to withdraw the filing meant that, legally and publicly, the couple faced Dane’s illness together.
For fans of Dane, whose McSteamy persona made him a television icon, the interview adds a poignant coda to his life: a marriage that endured its hardest chapter, and a widow determined to honour it.
