Eric Dane's widow Rebecca Gayheart reveals 'powerful moment' with Grey's Anatomy star as he struggled to speak

Eric Dane's wife Rebecca Gayheart is opening up about her final memories with him before his untimely death last month at 53.

Gayheart, 54, looked back on a touching moment with the late Grey's Anatomy star — who battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) before his death — as he tried to find a way to continue communicating even as the disease robbed him of his ability to speak.

She told Variety that Dane, in his last weeks, was involved with a project by the AI company ElevenLabs that was designed to restore his voice.

The technology was used to create a computerized version of Dane's speaking voice that was crafted by using previously made recordings of his voice.

Gayheart — who said her family is 'still in a state of shock' over Dane's death — said he pursued the experimental technology not just to communicate in daily life, but also so that he would be able to leave a final message to their daughters, 16-year-old Billie and 14-year-old Georgia. 

The Urban Legends actress — who recently celebrated Billie's Sweet 16 after her father's death — said that her husband 'was really excited about it, because he was losing his voice, and it was becoming more difficult for him to communicate each and every day. So it became sort of urgent.'

Weeks before Dane's death, he was able to hear the version of his voice that the AI company had created, and Gayheart recalled how emotional it made both of them to hear him be able to speak flawlessly again.

'He was waiting anxiously to hear it, and when we got it from ElevenLabs it was a really big moment. It was a powerful moment,' Gayheart said.

'We played it, and Eric became visibly emotional,' she continued. 'And when I heard it, I cried. I think everyone in the room did.'

Gayheart then revealed that she and Dane were able to play his newly created voice recording for their daughters a few days after they received it.

'They were like, that’s not a recording. That’s your voice. That’s you. So it was spot on,' she said. 'He just had this way of speaking, and they captured it so beautifully.'

She said that Billie and Georgia 'signed off on it, and we were thrilled to have it because we knew what was coming down the pike.'

'We were all really struggling with the voice loss that he was already experiencing,' the actress admitted. 'Knowing we had that in our back pocket just felt really good.

'I’m sad, and I know Eric is too, that we didn’t ever get to really use it,' Gayheart said, though she added that she was certain Dane would want as many people as possible to be able to take advantage of the technology.

She said that it could be essential for stars like Dane because 'Your voice is such a big part of your craft and you’re a storyteller.'

'He really understood how meaningful having the voice was,' Gayheart said. 'As his speech started to decrease, his ability to speak went away. He did lose a certain part of himself. He wasn’t able to express things in his own very special way. So he really understood how meaningful it was and the extraordinary honor giving someone back their voice and what that would feel like for others, and he wanted to make sure that he did everything he could do to make that happen.'

She added that she was certain Dane would be 'happy' with the technology and the series of short documentaries tracing the lives of people turning to it. 

According to Variety, ElevenLabs vows to offer lifetime software licenses and technical support to people dealing with terminal neurological diseases that can curtail their ability to speak over time.

While Dane was able to have the company recreate his own voice from past recordings — which would have been abundant because of his work as an actor in films and television — customers can also have the company create voices for them using previously licensed or public domain recordings.

So far, the company has claimed it will assist a million people with its services, amounting to around $1 billion in costs.

'[Dane] could not be happier that a million people will get their voices back — that I know,' Gayheart stated, adding elsewhere in the interview that 'What we don’t remember is that our voice is such a big part of who we are.'

According to Variety, ElevenLabs intended for Dane to record a bonus episode for its series 11 Voices, a group of 11 documentary short films focused on people who had successfully used the company's voice recreation technology. 

However, Dane's health reportedly took a turn for the worse before he was to record his bonus episode, so the project never came to fruition.

Gayheart still plans to support the project, however, and she will be part of a panel discussing the series when it debuts on March 13 at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

'He wanted to advocate for love and for the movement [around ALS] and so I’m there to do this for him,' she told the publication. 'For a million people to get a voice to be able to communicate with their children or their loved ones or their caretakers or their doctors or in their job — this is a really huge movement.'

Gayheart added her thanks to 'everybody for being so kind to us during the last couple of years. It’s been challenging and meaningful, and people are kind.'

She admitted to having 'trouble receiving all of the support and love coming at me from every which way because of Eric and the [entertainment] community that’s so generous with their time.'

'They’ve been holding me and the girls up the last two weeks, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere. I think they’re in it for the long haul,' Gayheart continued. 'Hollywood gets a bad rap. That kind of makes me mad, because we have a lovely community of people, and I’m so grateful for them.'

Gayheart found time amid family tragedy to celebrate her and Dane's daughter Billie's 'sweet 16' earlier this month by sharing a bevy of sweet childhood photos.

Among the throwback images was a snap featuring Gayheart's late husband.

Gayheart celebrated her daughter's birthday just a day after it was revealed that she had been listed as Dane's wife on his death certificate, despite the fact that the two had been legally separated for seven years prior to his ALS diagnosis.

Gayheart shared a cute photo of Billie beaming while wearing a pink flower in her hair and enjoying a pink ice cream cone in an ice cream parlor.

'Happy Sweet 16 to the sweetest girl — mommy loves you to the moon and back unconditionally forever and ever 💖💖💖💖,' she captioned the photo.

Gayheart's follow-up post was a video that featured a parade of photos of Billie with her parents, with each new photo layered over the previous images.

The heartstring-tugging post was soundtracked with Stevie Nicks's vocals from Fleetwood Mac's Landslide.

Most of the photos featured Billie solo or with Gayheart, but two images featured Dane.

In one, the late Grey's Anatomy star was absent his trademark facial hair as he gazed into the camera playfully while Billie sat on his lap and smiled.

Another featured the little girl with her mother and father on either side of her as they each gave her a kiss on each cheek simultaneously. 

Gayheart and Dane welcomed Billie in March 2010. 

A month before her birth, Dane had said on the Ellen DeGeneres show that he planned to be by Gayheart's side during the birth. 

'I'll be in the room,' he said, via People. 'I'm going to stay close to my wife and make sure that she is all right. I'm really excited. I'm also very interested.'

Dane also joked during the interview that he and his wife had settled on a name that was 'straight down the middle' between unusual and classic options.

Later, he revealed that Billie's name was a tribute to his father, who died by suicide when he was just seven.

'[Billie's] named after my father ... Whether it was a boy or a girl, the firstborn was gonna be a Billie,' he told Harry Connick Jr. in 2016. 

Notably, Billie carried the lineage from Dane, whose middle name was William.

Billie, a dancer and aspiring model, also shares a younger sister, Georgia, who was born in 2011. 

Fans of Dane were already aware he spent his final days 'surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife Rebecca Gayheart and his two beautiful daughters' due to the family's official statement.

And according to his newly released death certificate, the amicable exes were indeed still married when he died on February 19 from respiratory failure with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as an underlying cause.

His widow is also listed as the beneficiary of Dane's GoFundMe page, which raised $476,786 of a $500,000 goal to help 'provide stability during this incredibly difficult time and in the future for Eric's wonderful daughters.'

Had Gayheart and the Actor Award winner — who was cremated last Friday — never legally separated between 2018-2025, they would've been married for 21 straight years.

However, Dane had been dating photographer Janell Shirtcliff since 2022 while the Jawbreaker alum publicly kissed Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Peter Morton, 78, at E Baldi in Beverly Hills on December 3.

In Netflix's new documentary Famous Last Words, which was secretly taped in November, Dane directly addressed his teenage daughters.

'Billie and Georgia, these words are for you,' he said. 'I tried. I stumbled sometimes, but I tried. Overall we had a blast, didn't we? 

'I remember all the times we spent at the beach, the two of you, me and mom — in Santa Monica, Hawaii, Mexico. I see you now playing in the ocean for hours, my water babies.

'Those days, pun intended, were heaven. I want to tell you four things I've learned from this disease, and I hope you don't just listen to me. I hope you'll hear me.'

The San Francisco-born actor went on to instruct his children to cherish every moment, fall in love or find your passion, choose your friends wisely and fight until your last breath.

'The two of you are different people. But you're both strong and resilient. You inherited resiliency from me,' Dane continued.

'I hope I've demonstrated that you can face anything. You can face the end of your days. You can face hell with dignity. Fight, girls, and hold your heads high. Billie and Georgia, you are my heart. You are my everything. Good night. I love you. Those are my last words.' 

On average, ALS patients reportedly live two to five years following their first symptoms, but FDA-approved medications and physical/speech therapies might slow down the progression of the disorder.

The Countdown star concluded his role as the closeted real estate agent Cal Jacobs in the eight-episode third season of Euphoria, which premieres April 12 on HBO Max.

Sam Levinson's drug-fueled drama will welcome newcomers Sharon Stone, Rosalía, Marshawn Lynch and Kadeem Hardison in the new season.

Dane famously got his big break portraying plastic surgeon Mark 'McSteamy' Sloan from 2006–2012 on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

It's unclear when audiences will see Gayheart as Deborah Monroe in Spencer King's life-affirming drama Nickels, which scored a distribution deal from Briarcliff Entertainment last year.

Odessa A'zion, Tom Arnold and Rob Riggle are also featured in the LA-set flick about a grieving entrepreneur.

The former Noxzema girl hasn't had an acting gig since her quick cameo as Brad Pitt's doomed onscreen wife Billie Booth in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 revisionist fairytale, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.