Rebecca Gayheart, the estranged wife of actor Eric Dane, is opening up about the raw reality of his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the impact on their family as a whole.
Gayheart, who filed for divorce from Dane in 2018 after 14 years of marriage but never finalized the divorce, explained that despite their personal differences, she came together with their two daughters to take on caregiving responsibilities.
“Just figuring out the health-care system is its own thing,” the “Jawbreaker” actress wrote in her essay. “The health-insurance company will deny you what you’re asking for and you have to appeal, and then you have to apply again.”
Gayheart said she remained persistent in the grueling process of fighting with the insurance company over 24/7 nursing care and ultimately succeeded.
“With the nurses, the woman from his insurance said to me, ‘You can keep applying, and I’ll keep denying.’ I was like, Oh? [expletive] that,” she recalled. “I made it my mission. I was ‘locked in,’ as the kids would say. I crashed out, and then I locked it in. And we got it approved after two appeals.”
Dane’s weekly care is divided into 21 shifts, and when some can’t be covered, Gayheart or those close to the family will step up to make sure he is looked after.
Gayheart—who shares daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, with Dane—said that overall the experience has been positive for their family, showing that no matter how tumultuous their relationship was, the love will always be there.
“I think it’s nice for the kids to see maybe a softer side of us,” she wrote. “It’s not that they have the hopes of us being together—kids always dream of their parents getting back together, and I think now ours don’t because they understand the reality of the situation.
“Hopefully, what they see instead are two adults who are trying to be mature and focus on what’s important.”