Rebecca Gayheart, the estranged wife of the late actor Eric Dane, has shared the first symptom of ALS she noticed in him prior to his diagnosis. In an interview with Drew Barrymore on "Personal Spaces," Gayheart recalled Dane complaining about headaches, a symptom she found unusual as he rarely experienced them.
"He never once had a headache for all the years we were married or dated," Gayheart, 55, told Barrymore. She noted that Dane began "complaining about" headaches a few months before he experienced weakness in his hand. At the time, Dane attributed it to sleeping awkwardly.
Gayheart described these early signs as subtle. "That continued... So there were definitely signs, but nothing was so major that you would really stop and pay attention to it," she said.
Dane was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in 2024 and publicly announced his diagnosis in April 2025. He passed away in February at the age of 53.
In his posthumous memoir, "My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments," Dane detailed that his first symptom was difficulty using chopsticks during a sushi dinner, noting a tingling and numbness in his fingers. Initially, he believed it was due to excessive texting.
Three weeks later, the weakness in his hand worsened, making it impossible to grip the chopsticks. Dane's journey to diagnosis involved months of doctor visits and tests, during which he was initially misdiagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy, a rare autoimmune disorder. His medical team became concerned when he did not respond to the prescribed treatment.
After further evaluation, including a lumbar puncture, spinal fluid extraction, and brain scans, Dane received his ALS diagnosis nine months later. He went public with the news in April 2025, the same month he and Gayheart filed to dismiss their divorce. Gayheart mentioned that although they were not together romantically, they maintained a united family front for their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.