Dane

As he manages his own amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, actor Eric Dane is also advocating for the continuation of the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act, which is set to expire in 2026.

The actor, along with the nonprofit organization I AM ALS, spoke with U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) on Tuesday about the importance of the legislation, which provides funding for research and gives patients early access to treatments.

“So often, it takes all this time for these people to be diagnosed. Well, then it precludes them from being a part of these clinical trials,” Dane told Swalwell. “That’s why ACT for ALS is so, so great, and it’s because it broadens the access for everybody.”

It took Dane nine months before he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He announced his diagnosis in April.

Since then, the “Euphoria” actor has changed his approach to fighting his condition.

During an interview with “Good Morning America” in June, Dane expressed anger at the thought of being taken from his two young daughters. He said he was mad that history might repeat itself, as his father died when the “Grey’s Anatomy” alumnus was 7.

Months later, his frustration has turned into a fight to see his daughters’ lives play out.

“I want to see [my daughters], you know, graduate college, and get married and maybe have grandkids,” Dane told Swalwell. “You know, I want to be there for all that. So I’m going to fight to the last breath on this one.”

In the video posted on TikTok by the representative, Dane speaks with a slight slur but his words echo his fight to live on.

About 5,000 people are newly diagnosed with ALS each year in the U.S., according to the National ALS Registry. It affects the nerve cells in the brain that control movement, which eventually leads to the loss of the ability to speak, move, swallow and breathe.

Times staff writers Christie D’Zurilla and Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this report.

ERIC Dane did not appear at the Emmy Awards despite a scheduled appearance.

The Grey’s Anatomy alum, 52, had been previously announced as a presenter for the swanky TV ceremony on Sunday, September 14.

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Eric did not provide an explanation for his sudden absence.

The awards ceremony was expected to be Eric’s first major event since he opened up about his health battle in June during an appearance on Good Morning America.

Eric first announced his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS, in April in an interview with People.

“I have been diagnosed with ALS,” the TV star shared. “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter.”

Eric shares two children, Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13, with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart.

‘IT’S SOBERING’

He has since been more vocal about how the disease has significantly impacted him mentally and physically.

During a sit-down with Diane Sawyer on GMA, Eric revealed his left arm is the only one functioning, as his right had “completely stopped working.”

“I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering,” the Euphoria star said at the time.

Eric explained that he first noticed something wasn’t right after experiencing “weakness” and “fatigue” in his right hand.

Although he at first brushed it off, chalking the symptoms up to “texting too much,” it soon worsened leading him to see numerous specialists.

After nine months, Eric received the heartbreaking diagnosis that he had the incurable disease.

“I will never forget those three letters,” the Borderline star said.

“It’s on me the second I wake up. It’s not a dream.”

Eric then admitted that he feared the moment he loses cognitive function in the rest of his body.

“I’m worried about my legs,” he revealed.

The Last Ship star experienced a terrifying incident a couple of months earlier when he needed to be rescued by his daughter after suddenly losing the ability to swim during a boat trip.

“When I jumped into the ocean that day and realized I couldn’t generate enough power to get myself to the boat. I thought, oh god. I’m not safe to be in the water,” Eric, who was a competitive swimmer and athlete in high school, said.

“She dragged me back to the boat. I was breaking down in tears. I made sure she got back in the water and continued snorkeling with the guide. But I was heartbroken.”

Despite the long road Eric has ahead of him, he’s determined to battle the disease head-on.

“I just don’t feel like in my heart this is the end of me. I’m fighting as much as I can,” the Countdown star declared.

ALS, additionally referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a common degenerative neurological disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

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Eric Dane and filmmaker Janell Shirtcliff looked to be in full couple mode Wednesday at the premiere of Prime Video’s “Countdown,” a new series he stars in with Jensen Ackles. Hands were held; smiles and admiring glances were exchanged.

He was definitely not with Rebecca Gayheart, whom he married in October 2004 and just said — on national news, no less — is the person he reaches out to daily for “stalwart” support. Nope, even though Gayheart in early March requested the dismissal, without prejudice, of the 2018 divorce petition she had filed against Dane.

Dane revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Earlier this week, he revealed that he had lost function in his right arm due to the neuromuscular disease and felt his left arm failing.

So who’s dating whom? Dane’s relationship status is a bit fuzzy.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” alum, 52, has been “in an on-and-off relationship” with Shirtcliff for more than three years, Entertainment Tonight reported Wednesday. The two “care deeply for each other,” the outlet said, citing a source who added, “Eric asked Janell to be there for him during this time, and she wanted to show up for him.”⁠

Shirtcliff, who is a photographer and director, is in pre-production on the film “Generation Angst” and post-production on the horror flick “Triton,” according to IMDb.

But — Dane’s alleged girlfriend, actor Priya Jain, 27, was “blindsided” by his appearance at the event with Shirtcliff, 41, a source told Page Six on Thursday.

Jain and Dane met last summer and became “exclusive” in November 2024, the source said. “They never broke up.” The two have been photographed arm-in-arm in public and have matching tattoos, and she has spent “almost every night” at his house since they coupled up, Page Six said. They reportedly were together last weekend.

This three-way confusion is a tiny bit reminiscent of Dane and Gayheart’s nude 2009 bathtub video with actor Kari Ann Peniche, which Dane discussed in 2019 with Glamour. In the leaked video, the three could be seen bathing together naked — not having sex — and discussing their potential porn names about 15 years into the Gayheart-Dane marriage.

“I don’t necessarily think I was breaking any laws and corrupting anybody. We were just three people taking a bath,” he told the magazine. He added, referring at the time to the entirety of his past — including the bathtub video and his addiction to prescribed painkillers — “I have no regrets nor do I make any apologies for my life experience. It’s my life experience and I am at peace with all of it.”

As for Gayheart, she and Dane remain estranged as husband and wife even though she called off the divorce and they are in frequent contact as co-parents of their two daughters.

“I call Rebecca. I talk to her every day,” Dane said Monday on “Good Morning America,” fighting back tears as he talked about battling ALS. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents. And she is probably my biggest champion, my most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her.”

Eric Dane is angry. Angry that he’s been hit by ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“I’m angry because my father was taken from me when I was young, and now there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young,” says the actor, 52, whose father fatally shot himself when Dane was just 7.

The “Euphoria” and “Grey’s Anatomy” star, who revealed his diagnosis last Tuesday, sat down with “Good Morning America” to talk about his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable degenerative neurological condition. In ALS, the muscle neurons linking the brain and spine to the muscles deteriorate, leaving the muscle with nothing able to tell them what to do or when to do it. No messages means no movement, no functioning, in systems including eating and breathing.

The actor said in an interview broadcast on Monday that it’s been about 18 months since he started experiencing symptoms. It took a series of doctors and tests before he found out he was one of the 5,000 people a year diagnosed with ALS in the United States.

“I started experiencing some weakness in my right hand and I didn’t really think anything of it at that time,” Dane told Diane Sawyer, his voice perhaps sounding a bit slower and thicker than usual. “I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued.

“But a few weeks later, I noticed that it had gotten a little worse, so I went to a hand specialist, who sent me to another hand specialist. Then I went to a neurologist, who sent me to another neurologist, who said, ‘This is way above my pay grade.’”

Nine months after consulting with the first physician, Dane had his diagnosis.

Now “those three letters” — ALS — hit him every morning when he wakes up, he said.

“I have one functioning arm … my left side is functioning,” Dane said. “My right side has completely stopped working.”

Adding to the horror, his left arm is “going,” he said. “I feel like maybe a couple, few more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”

The former competitive swimmer and water polo player recalled the moment he realized he no longer felt safe in water. He dove off a boat to snorkel with his daughter in the ocean, then couldn’t “swim and generate enough power to get myself back to the boat.” The younger of his two daughters with actor wife Rebecca Gayheart, 13-year-old Georgia, had to come to his aid.

After she dragged him back to the boat, Dane said, he sent her back out with her friend and the snorkeling guide. Meanwhile, he broke down crying.

“I was heartbroken.”

Life expectancy for people with ALS varies by age of symptom onset, type of ALS and whether a person is male or female. The overall median life expectancy from symptom onset is 30 months, according to ALS United of Greater Chicago. Some people die within a year, while others have lived 20 more years, the group said. Earlier onset seems linked to a better survival rate.

The famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2016 at age 76, is an example of someone who survived for 55 years with the disease after being diagnosed at age 21. The minds of people with ALS stay sharp even as their bodies fail.

“Killing Me Softly” singer Roberta Flack died a little more than two years after revealing her ALS diagnosis at age 85.

Dane said Gayheart has become his “biggest champion” and “most stalwart supporter” as he continues to work when he can, including on a new series, “Countdown.”

“I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he told Sawyer. “I just don’t feel like, in my heart, I don’t feel like this is the end of me. … I’m fighting as much as I can.”