Rebecca Gayheart Reveals the Day She Realized Eric Dane's Final Hospital Stay Was the End

Rebecca Gayheart is opening up about the final weeks of Eric Dane’s life, and her story about his last hospital stay is one many families will recognize. On the November 3 episode of Today with Maria Shriver, Gayheart explained that Dane’s frequent hospital visits during his ALS battle had become routine, so no one realized that final admission was different until about day three, when the doctors’tone shifted and the information they were getting changed.

She described camping out in his hospital room with their daughters, 16-year-old Billie and 14-year-old Georgia, filling it with battery candles and his favorite music to make it feel as comfortable as possible. Gayheart said Dane remained aware and communicative as his health declined, though his speech was limited, and that ALS left him mentally more alive even as it stripped away his physical abilities. Dane died in February at age 53.

His posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments, was released the same day as the interview, giving fans one more way to remember him. How would you honor someone you love during their final weeks? We want to hear it.