Nearly a year before receiving his Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis, Eric Dane was having dinner with his daughters when he suddenly struggled to use his utensils.
At the time, he had no idea the unusual sensation was an early sign of the motor neuron disease, which currently has no cure.
Dane died at 53 earlier this year. Now, a memoir he wrote while living with the illness is set for publication, offering an intimate account of his addiction, his relationship with Rebecca Gayheart and the first signs of his ALS.
My Book Of Days: A Memoir of Moments will be published on November 3. In the book, Dane recalls how a family dinner first raised concerns about his health, according to an excerpt obtained by People.
“I’m eating sushi with my kids and suddenly I can’t work the chopsticks with my right hand. My hand tingles, and then my fingers feel numb,” he wrote.
Dane initially wondered whether it was “some kind of weird nerve thing,” perhaps caused by “texting too much.”
Eric Dane said he first noticed signs of ALS during a sushi dinner with his daughters, Billie and Georgia.
He tried to “shake it off,” but the alarming symptom returned less than a month later—and this time, it was worse.
“Three weeks later, it happens again, only worse. I can’t grip the chopsticks at all,” the actor wrote in his memoir.
The second episode began a nine-month search for answers before Dane was ultimately diagnosed with ALS.
Dane was initially reluctant to write about his addiction and the other difficult parts of his life, Gayheart told People.
Still, she said she was “grateful he did,” because the memoir gives their daughters “the opportunity to know their dad as a human being.”
Dane and Gayheart married in October 2004, separated in September 2017 and called off their divorce in March 2025—one month before Dane publicly revealed his ALS diagnosis.
The couple shared two daughters, Georgia, 14, and Billie, 16.
Dane was eating sushi when he struggled to “work” the chopsticks with his right hand, a symptom he initially attributed to excessive texting. Above, Dane with his family in 2016.
The former couple married in October 2004, separated in September 2017 and called off their divorce in March 2025 after Dane’s ALS diagnosis.
When Gayheart first learned about his devastating diagnosis, she told Dane, “I’m not going anywhere,” according to the memoir.
NEXT UP: Emmanuel Macron's Marital Status: Has He Separated from His Wife, Brigitte Macron? – NewsFinale
Dane called Gayheart after the appointment where he received the diagnosis and told her, “It’s what we feared,” according to an excerpt published by People.
“I don’t remember a single word I said after that,” he wrote, adding that Gayheart was “wailing on the other end of the phone.”
“My sobs make my body shudder, and I hear her words pouring out amid her tears: ‘I’m here, we’ll fight this together, I’m not going anywhere,’” he shared.
Dane said he turned his focus to being strong for the girls, declaring: ‘I’m going to take this on. I’m going to fight. I’m going to show my girls how to walk through this life with grace and dignity, no matter what. I am going to FIGHT.
‘This has become my purpose. My reason. This is now my job.’
Dane said the second occurrence of the same symptom sparked a nine-month journey ‘searching for answers’ before he was ultimately diagnosed
Dane’s memoir, My Book Of Days: A Memoir in Moments, will be released on November 3, less than a year after his death
Elsewhere in the memoir, he discussed the demise of his marriage to Gayheart, which he said was due in part to his substance abuse struggles.
‘My work hours, my addiction complications, the times I’m away, the times I’m here but not here,’ he listed as reasons for the fallout.
He said they ‘all weigh on Rebecca, smother her, disappoint her, infuriate her. I get it, I see it, I don’t fight it.’
However, he noted that: ‘We’ve since stayed close, co-parenting, going on vacations as a family, spending time together and now we talk every day.’
Gayheart wrote in a December 2025 essay published by The Cut that her love for Dane was no longer romantic, but ‘familial.’
‘We had a really lovely marriage for a long time – we were married for 15 years – we created two beautiful girls,’ she wrote.
‘But also, lots of s**t went crazy in our relationship, and it wasn’t good. We separated, but we never got a divorce; we were about to and then we didn’t. We haven’t lived in the same home for eight years; he’s dated other people, I’ve dated someone.’
‘It’s a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people,’ she acknowledged.
‘Our love may not be romantic, but it’s familial love. Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me.’