Kimberly Van Der Beek, the widow of actor James Van Der Beek, posted a public tribute to Eric Dane after Dane’s death last week, using the message to focus on the two families’ friendship and to offer direct support to Dane’s wife, Rebecca Gayheart.
In an Instagram post that paired her words with a throwback photo of the couples at a 2017 charity event, Kimberly Van Der Beek wrote that she and her children “love” Gayheart and would miss “our guys” together, recalling the way Dane and Van Der Beek bonded at holiday gatherings. The post arrived days after James Van Der Beek’s death on Feb. 11, a loss that has pulled friends and fans back into the couple’s private orbit while they mourn.
Dane, 53, died on Feb. 19 after living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a diagnosis he disclosed publicly in 2025. Gayheart and Dane share two daughters, and in tributes posted after his death, colleagues repeatedly returned to his energy on set and his devotion at home. Chyler Leigh, who worked with Dane on “Grey’s Anatomy,” described him as having a “heart of gold” and praised his advocacy around ALS awareness.
The Van Der Beeks’ tribute did not center on Dane’s screen legacy so much as the small, domestic memories that sit behind red-carpet photos: the shared parties, the in-jokes, the feeling of watching two husbands light up the room at the same time. In a season already crowded with awards talk, the post cut through with something simpler—one family speaking to another family after two sudden losses, in public, because the people left behind still have to wake up the next morning and keep going.
