Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart‘s marriage might have ended, but there was still “a lot of love” between them in the actor’s final months.
In a final interview recorded before his death last week, after a battle with motor neurone disease, the Grey’s Anatomy star, 53, shed light on his long relationship with his ex.
The Hollywood couple married in 2004, welcoming two daughters. They split around 2017-2018, but Gayheart filed to dismiss their divorce in 2025 amid Dane’s health diagnosis.
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Despite having moved on with new girlfriend Janell Shirtcliff before his death, Dane touched on his rocksolid bond with Gayheart in the posthumously-released interview, speaking about the monumental love they shared in his lifetime.
”We still love each other deeply. I just think we don’t want to live with each other,” he told Famous Last Words on Netflix.
“But there’s a lot of love there.”
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“I will never, by the time anybody sees this, have fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca,” Dane continued.
“She’s the mother of my children.”
He also touched on their early beginnings and how he knew she was the one right away.
“I met Rebecca and I turned to her friend and I said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl,”’ he said.
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“I have no idea how serious I was in that moment, but I said that and her friend said, ‘No way. She’s never breaking up with her fiancé, they’re getting married. They’ve been together since they were 15.’
“Four years later I married her. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Over the weekend, Shirtcliff shared a series of pictures of her with Dane as a tribute to him. It’s not clear if they were together at the time of his death.
They had debuted their romance in 2025 at the premiere of the series Countdown.
Dane is also said to have moved on with Priya Jain, who claimed she was dating the star when he and Shirtcliff made their debut.
A statement confirming Dane’s death was shared with People last week, the news coming 10 months after he went public with his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known as motor neurone disease in Australia.
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”With heavy hearts, we share that Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon following a courageous battle with ALS,” it read in part.
“He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world.”
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