Grey's Anatomy star Eric Dane was "in control" of his death, his wife has revealed.
The actor had been battling ALS, a degenerative neurological disorder, before his death in February at the age of 53.
His wife, Rebecca Gayheart, 55, told Today that his family had grown used to his frequent trips to hospital, but she and their daughters Billie, 16, and 14-year-old Georgia were not anticipating his final visit.
Gayheart said: “He had gone to the hospital so many times before, and they would patch him up, so to speak, and he would come home.
"And he’d be okay. And we’d go back to the normal routine, which did change week by week.”
She planned to "be back" before leaving for the hospital, and she and her daughters "never, ever anticipated" his death in February.
She said: “I had no idea that that was it, that that week was going to be our last week.
“And nor did my daughters. It really took a few days for us to understand the gravity of what that last trip to the hospital meant.”
By the third day, "everything shifted", including “the tone of when the doctors were talking to us, and some of the information we were given", and Dane knew that he was dying, she said.
Gayheart said: “He was fully aware it was shifting, and he was still communicating with us. Not well verbally, but I could understand him most of the time. The kids could most of the time, his closest friends. He was figuring it out as we went.
“But I remember the moment Eric decided to make some choices, and he did ... he was in control of the way he was going to leave."
The X-Men actor and their daughters "camped out there" in Dane’s room with him.
They brought battery-operated candles and played the Euphoria star's favourite music as they “tried to make it as nice as you can be in the hospital room.”
Gayheart, who split from Eric in 2018, requested to dismiss their divorce in March 2025 amid his health issues.
She admitted the actor's final days are all "a blur".
She said: “A lot of people will say, ‘Well, at least you knew, and you could have those last conversations.'
“But we didn’t know, because there is no road map. No one can tell you what the journey looks like because it’s so different for every patient.
“He was becoming more alive mentally, but losing all of his physical abilities. And for the girls, that was really hard to watch as well. But overall, it’s a blur because it was just so overwhelming.”
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