Rebecca Gayheart Dane opened up about the difficult moments she and Eric Dane had to navigate in light of his ALS diagnosis, including breaking the news to their daughters.
Gayheart Dane recalled stepping into her closet to take the call about Dane's ALS diagnosis on the Nov. 4 episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show." One of their daughters overheard and wanted to know what was going on to which Gayheart Dane responded by asking her for a little time.
She and Dane later sat down with both girls and their family therapist, and "told them what ALS was." Billie Dane, now 16, and Georgia Dane, now 14, had never heard of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
or ALS, is a progressive disease that damages motor neurons, the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. As those cells die, muscles weaken, making it harder to walk, speak, swallow and breathe, according to the Mayo Clinic.
"It was really hard to tell them because they had so many questions and they were," Gayheart Dane said. "When we said this is a disease that has no cure, they'd be like, but dad's going to be fine, right?"
She went on to share that they "couldn't wrap their heads around it" when they were told it was a fatal disease.
"It doesn't feel real you know I mean later on down the road it became very real but at that point he appeared healthy, he was functioning fine," she explained to Barrymore. "I mean, you know, he had a little issue with his hand, but outside of that, he looked great."
Eric Dane's first symptom that alarmed Rebecca Gayheart Dane
Looking back, Gayheart Dane remembered how unusual it was for her husband to complain of headaches. He started getting them months before he began having trouble with his hand, she told Barrymore.
"A few months before he started complaining with his hand, he started getting headaches, and I was like, 'Eric, you never get headaches. You've never taken an Advil. What are you talking about a headache?' And he was like, 'Well, maybe I slept on my neck funny.' So, I did notice that and that continued," she recalled during the interview.
Dane, who played Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy," died Feb. 19 at 53. His death certificate, obtained by USA TODAY, listed respiratory failure as the immediate cause and ALS as the underlying cause.
The couple stayed married after separating. Gayheart Dane wondered whether that gave the girls hope for a reunion, even though their parents had ruled it out. She said Billie and Georgia also saw that their parents were friends and that the four of them were a family.
What Eric Dane left for daughters Billie and Georgia
The interview aired a day after the release of Dane's memoir, "My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments." In it, Dane recalled a swim in Antigua when Georgia and a friend came to his rescue. Afterward, he called Gayheart Dane to tell her he could no longer swim. They cried together.
In the final chapter, Dane pictured Georgia at 24 and Billie at 26. "I was so looking forward to seeing the women you would become," he wrote.
Dane also spoke directly to his daughters at the end of Netflix's "Famous Last Words: Eric Dane." Gayheart Dane told Barrymore one daughter had seen the special. She promised the other they would watch it together. They were still waiting, she said, for a day when they both felt ready.
Contributing: Clare Mulroy, Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rebecca Gayheart recalls telling her daughters Eric Dane had ALS
