Eric Dane early ALS symptom — Before Eric Dane received an ALS diagnosis in 2024, Rebecca Gayheart noticed something uncharacteristic: he began complaining of headaches. The actor had never reported such pain during the years they dated or were married, she said during a Wednesday appearance on Drew Barrymore’s Personal Spaces.
A Change From the Usual
Gayheart, 55, recalled that the headaches emerged a few months ahead of the hand weakness that would later become a more obvious concern. She remembered questioning him directly, since he had never been one to reach for a pain reliever. In her recollection, Dane initially brushed the discomfort off as the result of having slept on his neck at an odd angle.
The symptom did not disappear. Gayheart described the headaches as one piece of a broader pattern that continued over time. Even so, she said none of the signs seemed serious enough at first to command immediate attention.
How Dane Described His First Symptom
Dane offered his own account in his posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments, released Tuesday. He wrote that he first sensed trouble during a sushi meal, when his right hand could not manage chopsticks. He recalled tingling in the hand followed by numbness in his fingers, and he initially assumed he had simply been texting too much.
Within three weeks, the weakness had progressed. According to the memoir, he could no longer hold the chopsticks at all. That led to months of medical appointments and testing as he sought an explanation.
A Misdiagnosis and a Long Road to Answers
Dane wrote that he was initially told he had multifocal motor neuropathy, described in the book as a rare autoimmune disorder that causes severe muscle weakness and has a treatment considered highly effective. When his condition did not improve with that treatment, his medical team grew alarmed, he wrote.
Nine months passed before he received the correct diagnosis, following a lumbar puncture, spinal fluid extraction and brain scans. Dane went public with his ALS news in April 2025. That same month, he and Gayheart filed to dismiss their divorce.
Family Kept Intact
Gayheart explained that although the two were no longer romantically involved, they worked to keep their family whole for their daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14. Dane died in February at 53 after living with the disease. His memoir, published after his death, gives readers a closer view of the symptoms he experienced and the medical uncertainty that preceded his diagnosis.
