Featured Image Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Euphoria, Film and TV, Health, US News
Liv Bridge
Topics: Celebrity, Euphoria, Film and TV, Health, US News
Grey's Anatomy star Eric Dane has confirmed he’s been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The 52-year-old Californian actor has confirmed he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative health condition that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and gets worse over time, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Speaking about his diagnosis to PEOPLE, Dane said: "I have been diagnosed with ALS. I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter."
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The Charmed alum married Rebecca Gayheart in 2004, with whom he shares two children, Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13.
Dane, who also stars as the Jacobs family patriarch on the hit HBO show, Euphoria, is set to start the production of season three on April 14 which the actor vows he will be a part of.
"I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working and am looking forward to returning to set of Euphoria next week," he added. "I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time."
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ALS, often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease after the baseball player who suffered from it, affects muscle control which starts small, like twitching and weakness in an arm or leg, or difficulty swallowing or speaking, before slowly affecting the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe over time.
The disease is fatal and has no cure with people living three to five years after diagnosis, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, though some sufferers can live for many years.
The news of Dane's condition comes weeks after Gayheart filed to dismiss her divorce from the actor.
The 53-year-old had filed for divorce from Dane after 14 years of marriage in 2018, citing irreconcilable differences at the time, reports US Weekly.
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Gayheart also previously told E! News before Dane revealed his ALS condition that the couple have been focusing on their family.
"We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great coparents," she said. "We really figured out the formula to staying a family and I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it and we are as well."
"I think it’s important to not look at a relationship that ends as a failure. It’s just a season. It wasn’t a failure. It was a huge success," she added. "We were married for, I mean, we are still married, but together for 15 years and we had two beautiful kids so I think that’s a successful relationship, and that’s how we look at it."
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Other famous people who have been diagnosed with ALS include British physicist, scientist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, as well as singer Joe Bonsall, actor Aaron Lazar, musician John Driskell Hopkins, American football fullback Eric Stevens, singer and pianist Roberta Flack, and Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell.