Eric Dane has '24/7 nurses' as ex Rebecca Gayheart continues caregiving amid ALS diagnosis

Eric Dane’s ex, Rebecca Gayheart, is opening up about the ongoing struggles of being a caregiver as he struggles with ALS.

The “Jawbreaker” star wrote an essay for The Cut, revealing Dane “has 24/7 nurses now” and she has stepped in with additional caregiving.

Dane was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in April of this year. While there are treatments for ALS to slow its progression, there is no known cure and patients gradually lose their ability to move, speak, and breath independently.

Gayheart filed for divorce from Dane in 2018 but later withdrew the petition in March 2025. The couple share two daughters, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13.

In her essay, Gayheart revealed she has taken charge of his medical care, writing that, “just figuring out the health-care system is its own thing — the health-insurance company will deny you what you’re asking for and you have to appeal and then you have to apply again.”

She added that she went multiple rounds with the insurance company to get in home nursing care for Dane, saying, “the woman from his insurance said to me, ‘You can keep applying, and I’ll keep denying,’ I was like, ‘Oh? F that.’ I made it my mission. I was ‘locked in,’ as the kids would say. I crashed out, and then I locked it in.”

While Dane has round the clock care split across 21 shifts, Gayheart still steps in where needed.

“There are times that shifts aren’t covered, so I cover them,” she wrote. “There was a 12-hour shift recently that I could not cover. I could only do four hours because of all the stuff that the kids are doing.”

She’s also called on friends to help with his care.

“I had to call on two of Eric’s friends, one of them who had never really taken care of him in that way. I thought, ‘I can’t believe I had to ask someone to do this.’ And of course when I asked for help, they said, ‘Yeah, anything, what do you need? What’s going on?’ And they both showed up and did a wonderful job,” she shared.

Not everyone in their lives has stepped up in the same way though.

"There are a lot of people who used to be more present in my life who I think about and wonder, 'Where’d they go?’” Gayheart said.

"It’s not easy for people," she explained. "So I don’t hold any grudges toward [anyone] who hasn’t shown up."

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