Rebecca Gayheart is lifting the lid on her “complicated relationship” with her late husband Eric Dane, explaining why they never finalised their divorce.
In an interview on the Today show Tuesday, November 3, the actress opened up about their decision to prioritise their family while promoting Dane’s posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments.
“I miss Eric. I knew Eric deeply. We were married almost 15 years,” Gayheart told Maria Shriver. “And, yes, we have a complex, complicated relationship that doesn’t fit into anyone’s box.”
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She added that they agreed their daughters deserved parents “who didn’t hate each other.”
The couple married in 2004 and filed for divorce in 2018, but Gayheart requested to dismiss the proceedings in March 2025. Dane revealed his ALS diagnosis the following month and died in February 2026 at age 53.
In his memoir, Dane described how their relationship endured beyond their separation.
“We leave our marriage, but we don’t leave our family,” he wrote, explaining that although they were no longer a couple, they remained a family.
Dane also credited Gayheart with supporting him throughout his illness, recalling that she was the first person he called after his diagnosis. He described her as his “rock” and expressed his gratitude in the book’s acknowledgements, writing, “I can’t thank you enough.”
READ MORE: Eric Dane admits he and Rebecca Gayheart ‘aren’t a couple…except sometimes’
