Janell Shirtcliff Shares Tribute After Eric Dane’s Death at 53
Photographer Janell Shirtcliff posted a series of intimate images and clips after the death of actor Eric Dane, who died Feb. 19 at age 53 following a battle with ALS. The posts, made on Feb. 21, offer a public glimpse of a relationship that became visible in the months after Dane announced his diagnosis in April 2025.
Janell Shirtcliff’s Instagram posts and the photos she shared
On Feb. 21, Janell Shirtcliff used Instagram Story posts to highlight candid moments with Dane: a black-and-white picture of him smiling while getting a tattoo on his left arm; a shot of him in a white T-shirt and tan cowboy hat standing beside a horse; and several affectionate images that included a photo of Dane planting a kiss on the side of her head on a stairway and a selfie of him leaning down toward her shoulder. One clip showed one of her children holding up a camera and directing an impromptu photo shoot with the Euphoria star, instructing him, “I want you to look over there at mom, ” before saying “smile. ”
The posts underscore Shirtcliff’s professional work as a photographer who has shot portraits of Post Malone, Jenna Ortega and Dua Lipa. Outreach to their representatives at the time of their public appearances received no response.
Red carpet appearance for Countdown in Los Angeles
The relationship between Dane and Shirtcliff became publicly visible in June, two months after Dane disclosed his ALS diagnosis, when the pair arrived together at the Los Angeles premiere of Dane’s Prime Video crime drama Countdown. The two walked the red carpet hand-in-hand and shared a laugh as they posed together.
Eric Dane’s final interview with Brad Falchuck
In what has been characterized as his final interview for the Feb. 20 episode of Famous Last Words, Dane spoke with Brad Falchuck and reflected on his past marriage. He said, “I will never, by the time anybody sees this, would have ever fallen in love with another woman as deeply as I fell in love with Rebecca. ” He added that Rebecca Gayheart “is the mother of my children, ” calling the experience “so organic and fortuitous. ” The interview has been referenced as Dane leaving behind his last words.
Marriage, family and legal separation with Rebecca Gayheart
Dane remained legally married to estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart. The couple, who exchanged vows in Las Vegas less than a year after they began dating, share daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14. They separated in 2017. Gayheart cited “irreconcilable differences” when she filed for divorce and sought spousal support and joint legal and physical custody of Billie and Georgia.
On social media, Gayheart had previously shown public support when Dane announced he was leaving the TNT drama The Last Ship because of a battle with depression, captioning a throwback image, “Way back when I met my Monday man crush. ” Dane has described the early days of their courtship as unremarkable—summing it up as a simple exchange that led to marriage after ten months.
ALS diagnosis, advocacy and the medical context
Dane announced his ALS diagnosis in April 2025 and subsequently became an advocate for awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is a progressive nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control and deterioration over time; it leads nerve cells in both upper and lower parts of the body to stop working and die. When nerves no longer trigger specific muscles, paralysis can follow and people may develop problems with mobility, speaking, swallowing and breathing.
Public health figures show nearly 33, 000 estimated ALS cases in 2022, with projections rising to more than 36, 000 by 2030. The disease is slightly more common in men than in women and tends to strike in midlife, between ages 40 and 60. The exact cause remains unknown, though Mayo Clinic experts note that a small number of cases are inherited. The condition is commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the Hall of Fame New York Yankees player who was diagnosed in 1939 on his 36th birthday and died in 1941 and who became the face of ALS for decades.
What makes this notable is the overlap of Dane’s public advocacy after his April 2025 diagnosis with a very public personal life that included a new relationship and enduring ties to his estranged family; those threads converged in the days after his death, when images and final interviews surfaced that illuminate his last public moments.
