{"id":498619,"date":"2026-02-23T10:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498619\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:06:15","slug":"eric-dane-death-stars-comments-on-relationship-with-ex-rebecca-gayheart-in-final-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498619\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Dane death: Star’s comments on relationship with ex Rebecca Gayheart in final interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Dane<\/a> and Rebecca Gayheart<\/a>‘s marriage might have ended, but there was still “a lot of love” between them in the actor’s final months.\ufeff<\/p>\n

In a final interview recorded before his death last week<\/a>, after a battle with motor neurone disease, the Grey’s Anatomy star, 53, shed light on his long relationship with his ex.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood couple married in 2004, \ufeffwelcoming two daughters. They split around 2017-2018, but Gayheart filed to dismiss their divorce in 2025 amid Dane’s health diagnosis.<\/p>\n

W\ufeffatch the video above.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca Eric Dane opened up on his relationship with ex Rebecca Gayheart in a final interview released after his death. (Getty Images for AFI)<\/p>\n

Despite having moved on with new girlfriend Janell Shirtcliff<\/a> before his death, Dane touched on his rocksolid bond with Gayheart in the posthumously-released interview, speaking about the monumental love they shared in his lifetime.<\/p>\n

\ufeff”We still love each other deeply. I just think we don’t want to live with each other,” he told Famous Last Words<\/a> on Netflix.<\/p>\n

“But there’s a lot of love there.”<\/p>\n

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\"JanetThe Grey’s Anatomy star had moved on with new girlfriend Janell Shirtcliff (pictured) before his death. (Instagram\/janetshirtcliff)<\/p>\n

“I will never, by the time anybody sees this, have fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca,” Dane continued.<\/p>\n

“She’s the mother of my children.”<\/p>\n

He also touched on their early beginnings and how he knew she was the one right away.<\/p>\n

“I met Rebecca and I turned to her friend and I said, ‘I’m going to marry that girl,”’\ufeff he said.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I have no idea how serious I was in that moment, but I said that and her friend said, ‘No way. She’s never breaking up with her fianc\u00e9, they’re getting married. They’ve been together since they were 15.’<\/p>\n

“Four years later I married her. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Shirtcliff \ufeffshared a series of pictures of her with Dane as a tribute to him. It’s not clear if they were together at the time of his death.<\/p>\n

They had debuted their romance in 2025 at the premiere of the series Countdown.<\/p>\n

\"Eric“I will never… have fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca.” (Getty)<\/p>\n

Dane is also said to have moved on with Priya Jain, who claimed she was dating the star when he and Shirtcliff made their debut.\ufeff<\/p>\n

A statement confirming Dane’s death was shared with People<\/a> last week, the news coming 10 months after he went public with his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known as motor neurone disease in Australia.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Grey’s Anatomy’s most famous guest stars you might have forgotten about<\/p>\n

\ufeff”With heavy hearts, we share that Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon following a courageous battle with ALS,” it read in part.<\/p>\n

“He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world.”<\/p>\n

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE<\/a>: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart‘s marriage might have ended, but there was still “a lot of love” between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-498619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}