Rebecca Gayheart is giving a glimpse into her family.
Seven months after Eric Dane shared that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his estranged wife—with whom he shares daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13—reflected on their family dynamic amid this chapter.
"I am trying to show them that we show up for people no matter what," Rebecca explained on the Nov. 17 episode of the Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen podcast. "He is our family. He is your father. We show up, and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it. We will get through it the best we can."
"It's super complicated for me," she continued. "We've been separated for eight years. The kids live with me 100 percent of the time. There's been a lot of other stuff. I'm trying to stay optimistic, though, about it all."
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum—who filed to dismiss her 2018 divorce from Eric this March—wanted to be an example for their kids when it comes to navigating hardship.
"I don't know if I'm doing it well or if I'm doing it in the wrong way or the right way," she admitted. "I'm just showing up. I'm showing up and I'm trying to be there for them. I guess time will tell."
Indeed, she knows that the Grey's Anatomy alum's devastating diagnosis—which is an incurable neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord—has been incredibly difficult for Billie and Georgia to grapple with.
"They are good girls who are just going through a lot," she shared. "They're having such complex feelings about it all because it's public. It confuses them."
When it comes to her own feelings, Rebecca is trying to roll with the punches. And that also means highlighting the nuisances of grief to their daughters.
"I am definitely experiencing growth as a person, as a human being," the 53-year-old explained. "It's all very humbling. I think one piece of this that I hope I'm passing on 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. This is life. Life, sadly, is just moments, good and bad strung together."
"You never know what you're going to get and we should treat today as a really special day," she continued. "This isn't a dress rehearsal. This is it. Whatever we're doing today, this is our life."
Although Eric and Rebecca are navigating a difficult chapter, the pair has been determined to remain a united front.
"We are best of friends," Rebecca told E! News in April. "We are really close. We are great coparents. 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."
"I think it's important to not look at a relationship that ends as a failure," she emphasized. "It's just a season. It wasn't a failure. It was a huge success. We were married for, I mean, we are still married, but together for 15 years and we had two beautiful kids so I think that's a successful relationship, and that's how we look at it."
For a closer look at Eric's ALS battle, keep reading.
Opening Up About His Private Health Battle
Eric Dane shared that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in April 2025.
"I have been diagnosed with ALS,” Dane told People at the time. “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter.”
Returning to Set
The Euphoria star made it clear that he wasn’t stepping away from the screen amid his diagnosis, sharing in April 2025 that he was continuing to film the final season of the HBO series.
And Dane, whose Amazon MGM Studios series Countdown debuted over the summer, admitted that acting has kept him “sharp” has he navigates his health battle.
"I feel great when I'm at work," he explained to E! News in June 2025. "Of course, there have been some sort of setbacks, but I feel pretty good. My spirit is always pretty buoyant, so at the end of the day, that's all that matters."
Detailing His First Symptoms
Two months after sharing his diagnosis, the Grey’s Anatomy alum spoke candidly about his journey, including the symptoms that led to his diagnosis.
"I started experiencing some weakness in my right hand," Dane told Diane Sawyer in a sit-down on Good Morning America in June 2025. "I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. 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."
After nine months of appointments, which involved visiting two hand specialists and two neurologists, Dane was told he had ALS.
"I will never forget those three letters," the father of two explained. "It's on me the second I wake up. It's not a dream."
“Sobering" Road Ahead
While sharing how the rare degenerative disease has affected him physically so far, he also detailed where he sees the progression headed.
“My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working," Dane shared during his interview with Sawyer. "I feel like maybe a couple more months, and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering."
A Close-Knit Support System
As Dane goes through this health battle, his wife of over 20 years, Rebecca Gayheart, who filed to dismiss their 2018 divorce in March, has been by his side.
“I call Rebecca. I talk to her every day,” Dane shared during his interview with Sawyer. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents, and she is probably my biggest champion and my most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her."
According to Gayheart, she and Dane are the “best of friends.”
“We are really close. We are great co-parents,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 star explained to E! News April 9, 2025. “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.”
Prioritizing Family Time
While Dane has been marking milestones with his and Gayheart’s daughters Billie and Georgia, he’s admitted he resents how his ALS is affecting the lives of his family members.
"I'm angry, because my father was taken from me when I was young," the actor, whose father died by suicide when he was a young boy, said during his GMA interview. "And now there's a very good chance I'm going to be taken from my girls while they're very young. 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."
Emmys Absence
Dane was set to present at the 2025 Emmys alongside his Grey's Anatomy costar Jesse Williams on Sept. 14 but ended up missing the award show. A few weeks after his absence, Dane shared that he had to skip the show because of a hospital visit.
“ALS is a nasty disease," he said during an interview with The Washington Post published on Oct. 2. "So I was in the hospital during the Emmys getting stitches put in my head."
"I was a really upset about it,” Dane added. “But you know, there was nothing I could do about it."
His Hopes for the Future
Dane met with doctors and representatives from the I Am ALS organization in September, 2025, and spoke with California congressman Eric Swalwell about federal funding towards research for the currently incurable neurological disease.
“I wanna ring every bell,” Dane told Swalwell in a TikTok video posted by the politician on Sept. 29. “I have two daughters at home. I wanna see them graduate college, get married, maybe have grandkids.”