Eric Dane said he held himself responsible for his split from wife Rebecca Gayheart in a new special filmed before his death.
“I think Rebecca was more willing to show up and do her part than I was,” he admitted to Brad Falchuk in Famous Last Words: Eric Dane.
The Netflix special debuted Friday, just one day after Dane died at 53 following a difficult battle with ALS.
Eric Dane opened up about his split from wife Rebecca Gayheart in the Netflix special Famous Last Words: Eric Dane, which was released one day after his death at age 53.
Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart — pictured above with their two daughters in 2013 — separated in 2018 after 13 years of marriage.
“I don’t have that gene that just makes you wanna keep going regardless of what happens,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum continued. “I’m like, ‘If there’s a hole in the boat, don’t try to patch the hole. Scuttle the damn thing and find a new one.’”
Dane and Gayheart, 54, split in 2018 after 13 years together, but called off their divorce in March 2025 — one month before he went public with his ALS diagnosis.
The couple share two daughters, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14.
In the Netflix special Famous Last Words: Eric Dane, Eric Dane — pictured above with Rebecca Gayheart at the “Dreamgirls” premiere in 2006 — said he blamed himself for their split.
Dane praised his estranged wife in the special, calling her “a fighter” who always “perseveres.”
He also acknowledged that there was “a lot of time lost” with Gayheart and their children following their separation.
“We’re still really best friends, but we’re not together,” he explained. “By virtue of the distance of us living in separate homes, there’s a lot of time lost there. But I made sure that I can be there as much as possible and certainly when it counts.”
“We still love each other deeply,” Dane added. “I just think we don’t wanna live with each other. But there’s a lot of love there.”
“I think Rebecca Gayheart was more willing to show up and do her part than I was,” Eric Dane said.
Eric Dane — pictured above with Rebecca Gayheart and their daughters at the “Cinderella” premiere in 2015 — called Gayheart a “fighter” in the Netflix special Famous Last Words: Eric Dane.
The Euphoria star also declared, “I will have never, by the time anyone sees this, have fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca.”
Elsewhere in the special, Dane reflected on the “organic and fortuitous” beginning of their relationship.
“I met Rebecca, I turned to her friend and I said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl,’” he recalled.
When asked how he knew Gayheart was “the one,” Dane replied, “I have no idea. I had no idea how serious I was in that moment, but I said that.”
“I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her,” he added.
“I met Rebecca Gayheart, I turned to her friend and I said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl,’” Eric Dane said, pictured above with Gayheart in West Hollywood in 2016.
Rebecca Gayheart — pictured above with Eric Dane in 2004 — cared for Dane during his ALS battle.
Dane also reflected on how he believed Gayheart viewed him.
“She would say that I was probably a person who was constantly vulnerable and terrified of being vulnerable,” he said. “I think she would say that I was funny. She would say that I was charming and I don’t know it.”
Before Dane’s death, Gayheart explained that she called off their divorce to teach their daughters to “show up for family,” even “when times are at their worst.”
“We tell them, ‘We show up for people no matter what. He is our family. He is your father,’” she shared on the Broad Ideas last November..
“He is our family. He is your father,” Rebecca Gayheart told her daughters before Eric Dane’s death.
In the interview, Gayheart admitted she wasn’t sure if calling off the divorce was “the wrong way or right way.”
“I’m just showing up and trying to be there for [my kids]. I guess time will tell,” she said.
Following their split, both Gayheart and Dane had relationships with other people. Gayheart has been linked to billionaire Peter Morton, while Dane briefly dated filmmaker Janell Shirtcliff last June.
