Rebecca Gayheart has described the early signs she noticed before her husband, actor Eric Dane, was diagnosed with ALS. She said he began complaining of headaches a few months before weakness developed in his hand, despite rarely having headaches during their years together.
Dane initially thought he had slept awkwardly on his neck, Gayheart recalled. She said the headaches continued, but did not seem serious enough at the time to prompt alarm.
In his book, Dane described struggling to use chopsticks with his right hand as it began to tingle and his fingers went numb. He first suspected he had been texting too much. Within three weeks, the weakness had worsened to the point that he could no longer grip the chopsticks.
Dane then spent months seeing doctors and undergoing tests. He was initially diagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes severe muscle weakness, and received treatment. When he did not respond, his medical team became concerned. Nine months later, following further tests that included a lumbar puncture and brain scans, he received an ALS diagnosis.
Dane went public with his diagnosis in April 2025. He died in February at 53 and is survived by Gayheart and their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
Sources: Page Six.