Eric Dane is known for making people swoon as Grey’s Anatomy’s “McSteamy” Dr Mark Sloan, but the star has been going through a devastating health battle.
However, in April 2025, he revealed his Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) exclusively to PEOPLE, after he found out about it the year before.
Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, it affects the nervous system and the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
According to the Mayo Clinic, it often begins with weakness in the arm or leg, slurred speech, struggles with swallowing, or twitching muscles.
Eventually, it affects the muscles required to move, speak, breathe, and eat, and there is no cure.
The exact cause is not known, and a small number of cases are inherited, but this isn’t the case for the star.
How it’s brought his family together
Over time, the 53-year-old’s ability to move had declined; his ex-wife, Rebecca Gayheart, revealed that he now had around-the-clock care.
Even though they’ve been separated since September 2017, she revealed in a deeply personal essay for The Cut that she’s determined to help him.
“I made it my mission. I was ‘locked in,’ as the kids would say. I crashed out, and then I locked it in,” she wrote, and helped him secure support for himself.
The diagnosis has also been devastating for their daughters, Georgia, 14, and Billie, 15. She consulted a therapist who specialises in supporting teenagers to help them navigate the “really huge loss”.
She also gave them the opportunity to speak directly with their father’s doctor.
“They had a lot of questions that at that point I couldn’t answer, and I don’t even know if Eric could answer them,” she explained in the essay.
“They’ve talked to her, and they know that she’s available at all times.”
It was important for their daughters to understand, but also be by his side.
“He is our family. He is your father,” she told the Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen podcast in November.
“We show up, and we try to do it with some dignity and some grace and just get through it.”
Describing her relationship with her ex-husband as complicated, she said his days are divided into 21 shifts, which she helps with.
“There are times that shifts aren’t covered, so I cover them,” Rebecca wrote in her The Cut essay.
“There was a 12-hour shift recently that I could not cover. I could only do four hours because of all the stuff that the kids are doing.”
Never losing hope
Since he shared his diagnosis publicly, the Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria star has provided updates about the toll it has taken on him.
In June, he told Good Morning America that his right arm “completely stopped working”, and he couldn’t use his left as much.
“It’s sobering,” he lamented. “I’m fighting as much as I can. There’s so much about it that’s out of my control.”
Throughout his diagnosis journey, he said he felt lost, until he met neurologist and leading ALS researcher, Dr Merit Cudkowicz.
He’s determined not to lose hope and is willing to try anything to make a difference. He also revealed that he’s taking medication to slow down the disease’s symptoms.
“I’m very hopeful,” he shared. “Yeah, I don’t think this is the end of my story. I’m pretty resilient.
“I just don’t feel like in my heart I don’t feel like this is the end of me.”
Like Eric, Dr Cudkowicz is also optimistic because of treatments that have been discovered that can help some patients slow down the disease’s progress.
In December, he joined a virtual event for the not-for-profit I am ALS, revealing he was in good spirits.
“I don’t think anybody would blame me if I went upstairs in my bedroom, crawled under the sheets, and spent the next two weeks crying,” he shared.
“[But] I was a little bit pleasantly surprised when I realised that I wasn’t built like that, because I thought for sure that was gonna be me.”
Is Eric Dane using a wheelchair now?
The actor is determined to raise awareness for the disease.
Fans grew worried when he was spotted at Toronto airport using a wheelchair in October, but he isn’t giving up.
“I think 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 during the virtual event.
“And it’s something I’ve had to wrestle with because I’m a pretty selfish person, and I’d love for my life to be all about me, but I just can’t – I don’t think I’d be able to move forward if that were the case.”
As part of his advocacy, he also joined the Target ALS Foundation’s board of directors.
In his statement announcing the news, he said he wanted to help deliver effective treatments and advocate for different ways people can get quicker diagnoses.
He also hasn’t let it stop him from returning to Euphoria to film its third season from February until November 2025, which is set to be released in April 2026 on HBO Max.
