“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,” the statement from his loved ones read. “Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight.”
“He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always,” the statement concluded. “Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he’s received.”
As mentioned in the family’s message, Eric found it incredibly important to talk openly about his ALS journey, and, after sharing his diagnosis, gave interviews about his health. “It’s imperative that I share my journey with as many people as I can because I don’t feel like my life is about me anymore,” he said at an I AM ALS panel last year.
“I make sure that people are aware of what ALS is and what it’s about, and more importantly, what we can do to combat it and improve the landscape, because it’s so rocky and littered with hurdles and bureaucracy and all this other nonsense that we’re trying to sift through so we can get to a place where we go, start working on solution,” he said.
Now, in the wake of his death, Eric’s fans are revisiting some of his post-diagnosis interviews, and this particular quote about his teenage daughters — 15-year-old Billie and 13-year-old Georgia, whom he shares with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart — has broken people’s hearts.
Back in June, in his first TV interview after sharing his diagnosis, Eric was asked by Diane Sawyer how “angry” the illness made him feel. In response, the actor talked about his own dad, who died when he was 7 years old. “My father was taken from me when I was young,” he said, “and now there’s a very good chance that I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young.”
He continued: “I mean, I really, at the end of the day, just, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit if I can. I don’t think this is the end of my story. I just don’t feel like, in my heart, I don’t feel like this is the end of me.”
This specific interview clip has been circulating on X since Eric’s death, and people are heartbroken by the cruelty of it all.
“Eric Dane saying the worst thing about this is his girls losing him so early in their lives the way he lost his own dad. Life is so unfair,” read one X post with over 70,000 likes at the time of writing.
“the cruelest part of losing a parent young is that you spend the rest of your life trying to protect your own kids from the exact wound you carry. and knowing you can’t,” another user wrote. “he lived his whole life with that absence and his biggest fear was his daughters feeling it too.”
“Eric Dane having 2 teenage daughters makes me so sad, nobody deserves to see their parent slowly decline especially when you’re so young,” echoed someone else, calling it “the worst feeling ever.”
This is truly devastating. We’re sending so much love to Eric’s family and everyone who loved him. You can read his full obituary here.
