In his first interview since being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Eric Dane revealed the symptoms he’s facing a year and a half after he first got his diagnosis.
“I have one functioning arm,” Dane told Diane Sawyer in a special Good Morning America interview. “My dominant side. My left side is functioning. My right side has completely stopped working.” However, he noted that his left arm “is going” too. “I feel like maybe a couple, few more months, and I won’t have my left hand either,” the actor admitted. “It’s sobering.”
The Grey’s Anatomy star said his first symptom was “weakness” in his right hand. While he “didn’t really think anything of it” at first, he went to a hand specialist a few weeks later after noticing it had gotten worse. “I went an saw a neurologist and the neurologist sent me to another neurologist and said, ‘This is way above my pay grade,’” he shared. It took nine months for him to receive a diagnosis.
FULL INTERVIEW: Former “Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane speaks out for the first time in a television interview about his battle with ALS, a degenerative neurological disorder. “I don’t think this is the end of my story.” @ABC News’ @DianeSawyer reports. https://t.co/NM3oCKiozO pic.twitter.com/gzcuRAkplM
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 16, 2025
“I will never forget those three letters,” Dane said, referring to the neurodegenerative disease that weakens nerve cells. “It’s on me the second I wake up. It’s not a dream.”
For now, Dane is still able to walk, but said he’s “worried” about his legs. He recounted a story from a few months ago where he went snorkeling with his teenage daughter and realized he “couldn’t swim or generate enough power to get back to the boat.” His daughter had to drag him back to the boat, where he “broke down in tears.”
Dane shares his two daughters with Rebecca Gayheart. They tied the knot in 2004 and she filed or divorce in February 2018. However, the split was never finalized, and she dismissed the petition this March.
“I call Rebecca [when it hits me hard],” Dane said. “I talk to her every day. We have managed to become better friends and better parents and she is probably my biggest champion and most stalwart supporter. I lean on her.”
He insisted that he’s “fighting as much as [he] can,” despite “so much” being out of his control. “I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he said. “I don’t feel like in my heart that this is the end of me.”
However, he’s making sure to embrace as much time as he can with his family. “I’m angry because my father was taken from me when I was young and now there’s a very good chance that I’m goin to be taken from my girls when they’re really young. I really, at the end of the day, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit if I can.”