Round-the-clock nurses are now part of Eric Dane’s day-to-day life as he lives with ALS, and his estranged wife, Rebecca Gayheart, says she’s still stepping in when coverage falls short.
People reported that Gayheart fought Dane’s insurance company to secure in-home care, pushing through appeals until she got approval, then juggling a weekly schedule split into 21 shifts. Even stepping in when a nurse can’t make it.
Back in April, Dane publicly confirmed he’d been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and asked for privacy as his family adjusted. It’s a progressive condition that affects nerve cells and muscle control, and there’s still no cure.
Compassion and care
In the coverage by People Magazine, Gayheart is reported as saying that she was told by Dane’s insurance that “you can keep applying, and I’ll keep denying” the request for home nursing care. It was that denial that flipped a switch in her, making it her mission to keep pushing until the care was approved. That’s persistence as appeals can consume large amounts of time.
In the same coverage, Dane’s home nursing is split across 21 shifts each week. It sounds regimental, but for anyone who has experienced home nursing, times change, emergencies happen, and in one such scenario, Rebecca faced a 12-hour gap she couldn’t fully cover because of everything happening with the children. She covered what she could and scrambled for help to fill in the rest. That’s beyond dedication, it’s genuine compassion and care.
What happened with Dane and Gayheart?
The couple married in 2004, in a Las Vegas wedding, but the relationship hit turbulence, and Gayheart doesn’t sugarcoat it now. She described a long stretch where things were good, then “lots of” stuff “went crazy,” and “it wasn’t good,” before their split and the many years living apart.
Page Six reported that despite the separation and both of them dating other people, Gayheart still frames the connection as family first, and she calls their current setup “confusing” to outsiders. She also emphasized that love isn’t romantic anymore, it’s “familial.”
The couple’s teen daughters Billie and Georgia are right in the middle of this, and that’s where the story gets surprisingly tender. Hello Magazine noted that the girls don’t seem to hold out hope for a reunion, but they are seeing a softer, more mature version of their parents showing up for each other.
In her Cut essay, Gayheart said the first shock hit over a phone call from a doctor’s office in San Francisco after Dane saw a neurologist. People wrote that she remembered earlier signs too, like him struggling with chopsticks at meals, and that both of them were “weeping” as the reality landed.
The support network
When the chips are down, help often comes in the most unexpected places, and disappears in others. People Magazine reported that Gayheart leaned on two of Dane’s friends when she couldn’t cover a shift, while also admitting she’s wondered where certain people went when things got “so heavy,” something she’s even processed in therapy.
It’s stories like this that give extra meaning to marriage, family, and friends. It’s a positive that parts are played out in public, not the diagnosis itself, which is a tragedy, but the raw, unfiltered mechanics of caregiving, insurance fights, and a family trying to stay intact while the world watches. That is the kind of celebrity news we rarely see and it’s uplifting.