“Grey’s Anatomy” actor Eric Dane died last month at age 53 due to ALS. His wife, actress and model Rebecca Gayheart, has been helping their teen daughters process their grief.
“I’m doing the best I can,” Gayheart shares with TODAY.com.
Gayheart and Dane married in 2004 and separated in 2018, but they never divorced. The two remained close through the rest of Dane’s life and continued to raise their two daughters, Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14, together.
“It’s a lot to navigate,” she says of Dane’s passing. “As a mother, it’s heartbreaking because my daughters are devastated, as am I. It’s a very nuanced, complex thing — grief — and it comes in waves.”
Gayheart and her daughters are “happy he’s not suffering,” and she often reminds them that “he’s not gone. He’s still here. You can still talk to him. He’s with you, even though he’s not here physically. He’s with you in spirit and soul.”
To help her girls through the tough days, she tells them that Dane “really wanted them to know that they could face any adversity in the way he faced this disease: with strength, but also compassion.”
Talking about Dane “doesn’t always take away the tears,” says Gayheart. “But we talk about what he stood for and what he would have wanted.”
One of the more difficult moments of Dane’s condition was the permanent loss of his voice. ElevenLabs, however, was able to use recordings of Dane’s voice to create an AI voice clone for him. Although he wasn’t able to put his AI voice to use before his death, Gayheart is hopeful that the technology will help other families like theirs.
“We’re trying to honor him every day,” Gayheart says. “I know the girls are excited about the voice initiative that they’re doing because this is going to be part of Eric’s legacy.”
Gayheart will try to make a joke or remind the girls of happier times when they’re feeling down. “But you know, grief is a funny thing,” she says. “It kind of sneaks up on you, and it does come in waves, so it seems to come out of nowhere and hit you.”
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