James Van Der Beek's Wife Kimberly Shows on Friendship With Eric Dane
James Van Der Beek's most critical other Kimberly Van Der Beek shared a message to Eric Dane's estranged most critical other Rebecca Gayheart after the Euphoria actor's loss of life, providing insight into their household connection.
Kimberly Van Der Beek’s household bond with Eric Dane lives on.
In the wake of the Grey’s Anatomy actor’s loss of life Feb. 19 at age fifty three, the movie producer—whose husband James Van Der Beek passed away eight days earlier following a war with most cancers—shared a deepest message for Eric’s estranged most critical other Rebecca Gayheart, recalling memories of their time together.
In a put up on her Instagram Experiences Feb. 21, Kimberly, 43, shared a throwback photograph of herself and James posing on a red carpet with Eric and Rebecca as properly as the former couple’s daughters Billie, now 15, and Georgia, now 14. Alongside the pic, she wrote, “Will omit our guys laughing at Christmas events together.”
Amid her luxuriate in fret, Kimberly—mother to six teenagers with the gradual Dawson’s Creek alum—offered Rebecca a message of make stronger for her twin carriageway forward.
“RIP @realericdane,” she shared. “We fancy you @rebeccagayheartdane.”
And the As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood actress seemed as if it would cherish the kind gesture, reposting Kimberly’s message on her luxuriate in Instagram Myth in conjunction with a mending heart emoji whereas together with, “So indispensable cherish for you.”
While Rebecca, 54, filed for divorce from Eric in 2018 after greater than 13 years of marriage, the two remained legally married unless his loss of life and maintained a nice rapport amid his war with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
“We are simplest mates,” she advised E! Recordsdata in April, quickly after he disclosed his illness publicly. “We are no doubt shut. We are huge coparents.”
If truth be told, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum knew that Eric’s health war—and her involvement in his care—would luxuriate in a serious influence on their teenagers.
“I am making an are trying to illustrate them that we demonstrate up for other folks no subject what,” she explained on the Big Solutions with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen podcast in November. “He’s our household. He’s your father. We demonstrate up, and we are trying to invent it with some dignity and some grace and upright obtain by it. We will obtain by it the excellent we can.”
For more on Eric’s ride with ALS, preserve discovering out.
Opening Up About His Deepest Health Battle
Eric Dane shared that he became identified with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's illness, in April 2025.
“I had been identified with ALS,” Dane advised Folks at the time. “I am grateful to luxuriate in my loving household by my aspect as we navigate this subsequent chapter.”
Returning to Attach
The Euphoria indispensable particular person made it obvious that he wasn’t stepping away from the show camouflage amid his diagnosis, sharing in April 2025 that he became persevering with to movie the final season of the HBO sequence.
And Dane, whose Amazon MGM Studios sequence Countdown debuted over the summer time, admitted that performing has kept him “engaging” has he navigates his health war.
“I feel huge after I'm at work,” he explained to E! Recordsdata in June 2025. “Pointless to reveal, there had been some form of setbacks, nevertheless I feel lovely impartial. My spirit is repeatedly lovely buoyant, so at the tip of the day, that's all that matters.”
Detailing His First Symptoms
Two months after sharing his diagnosis, the Grey’s Anatomy alum spoke candidly about his ride, together with the symptoms that resulted in his diagnosis.
“I started experiencing some weakness in my excellent hand,” Dane advised Diane Sawyer in a sit-down on Correct Morning America in June 2025. “I didn’t no doubt remark one thing else of it at the time. I believed maybe I’d been texting too indispensable or my hand became fatigued, nevertheless a pair of weeks later I spotted it got a small worse.”
After nine months of appointments, which enthusiastic visiting two hand consultants and two neurologists, Dane became advised he had ALS.
“I will never put out of your mind those three letters,” the father of two explained. “It's on me the 2nd I wake up. It's not a dream.”
“Sobering” Highway Forward
While sharing how the uncommon degenerative illness has affected him bodily so some distance, he also detailed the set apart he sees the event headed.
“My left aspect is functioning, my excellent aspect has fully stopped working,” Dane shared for the length of his interview with Sawyer. “I feel fancy maybe a pair more months, and I received’t luxuriate in my left hand both. It’s sobering.”
A Cease-Knit Abet System
As Dane goes by this health war, his most critical other of over two decades, Rebecca Gayheart, who filed to put out of your mind their 2018 divorce in March, has been by his aspect.
“I name Rebecca. I seek the recommendation of with her daily,” Dane shared for the length of his interview with Sawyer. “We luxuriate in managed to change into better mates and better oldsters, and she or he’s doubtlessly my most though-provoking champion and my most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her.”
In preserving with Gayheart, she and Dane are the “simplest of mates.”
“We are no doubt shut. We are huge co-oldsters,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 indispensable particular person explained to E! Recordsdata April 9, 2025. “We no doubt figured out the plot to staying a household and I remark our teenagers are benefiting tremendously from it and we’re as properly.”
Prioritizing Family Time
While Dane has been marking milestones with his and Gayheart’s daughters Billie and Georgia, he’s admitted he resents how his ALS is affecting the lives of his relations.
“I'm wrathful, on fable of my father became taken from me after I became younger,” the actor, whose father died by suicide when he became a younger boy, acknowledged for the length of his GMA interview. “And now there's a no doubt impartial chance I'm going to be taken from my girls whereas they're very younger. On the tip of the day, all I want to invent is expend time with my household and work a small bit, if I will.”
Emmys Absence
Dane became enviornment to picture at the 2025 Emmys alongside his Grey's Anatomy costar Jesse Williams on Sept. 14 nevertheless ended up missing the award demonstrate. A few weeks after his absence, Dane shared that he needed to skip the demonstrate as a result of a sanatorium seek the recommendation of with.
“ALS is a execrable illness,” he acknowledged for the length of an interview with The Washington Put up published on Oct. 2. “So I became within the sanatorium for the length of the Emmys getting stitches attach in my head.”
“I became a no doubt upset about it,” Dane added. “However , there became nothing I would possibly per chance well well invent about it.”
His Hopes for the Future
Dane met with docs and representatives from the I Am ALS group in September, 2025, and spoke with California congressman Eric Swalwell about federal funding in direction of compare for the at the 2nd incurable neurological illness.
“I wanna ring every bell,” Dane advised Swalwell in a TikTok video posted by the flesh presser on Sept. 29. “I luxuriate in two daughters at home. I wanna watch them graduate college, obtain married, maybe luxuriate in grandkids.”
His Tragic Passing
Dane died on Feb. 19 at age fifty three following his yearlong war with ALS. His household confirmed in an announcement to E! that he “spent his final days surrounded by dear mates, his devoted most critical other, and his two comely daughters.”
“All the procedure by his ride with ALS, Eric grew to change into a passionate point out for consciousness and compare, positive to acquire a disagreement for others facing the identical war,” his household's enlighten persevered. “He’ll be deeply overlooked, and lovingly remembered repeatedly. Eric adored his followers and is forever grateful for the outpouring of cherish and make stronger he’s got. The household has requested for privacy as they navigate this not doable time.”
Source credit : eonline.com
