Janell Shirtcliff shares intimate photos and moments with Eric Dane after his death
janell shirtcliff posted a series of story posts days after Eric Dane’s death, offering a private look at their relationship and moments with her family. The images and clips surfaced shortly after the actor’s passing and draw a close, personal line through recent public developments.
Photos posted on Feb. 21 show candid moments and a tattoo session
In a series of story posts on Feb. 21, Janell Shirtcliff shared several photos of Eric Dane following his death on Feb. 19 at age 53 after a battle with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The images included a black-and-white snap of Dane smiling while getting a tattoo on his left arm and a shot of him posed in a white T-shirt and a tan cowboy hat alongside a horse.
The posts also included more intimate moments: one photo captured Dane planting a kiss on the side of Shirtcliff’s head as they posed on a set of stairs, and another was a selfie of him leaning down toward her shoulder.
Her background as a photographer and the people she’s shot
Janell Shirtcliff is identified in the posts as a photographer who has captured portraits of Post Malone, Jenna Ortega and Dua Lipa. In her recent content dump she included a clip showing the bond between Dane and one of her children, who held up a camera and directed an impromptu photo shoot with a Euphoria star.
In the clip the youngster instructs Dane, saying, “I want you to look over there at mom, ” before commanding him to “smile. ” Those moments framed Dane not only as a romantic partner but as someone engaged with Shirtcliff’s family life.
Public debut in June and connections to his ALS diagnosis
The two seemed to debut their romance in June, a timing that came two months after Dane shared his ALS diagnosis. The pair arrived together at the Los Angeles premiere of his crime drama Countdown, where they walked hand-in-hand and shared a laugh down the red carpet.
A news outlet reached out to their representatives at the time for comment on the relationship but did not hear back.
Family and legal status with Rebecca Gayheart
Despite the apparent courtship with Janell Shirtcliff, Dane remained legally married to estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart, with whom he shared daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14. The couple had separated in 2017.
In his final interview with Brad Falchuck for the Feb. 20 episode of Famous Last Words, Dane spoke about Gayheart, saying, “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, “She’s the mother of my children, and the whole weight of thinking about it was so organic and fortuitous. ”
Earlier relationship timeline and the divorce filing
Dane and Gayheart never revealed precisely how they first connected; Dane called the story “probably one of the least interesting stories in the world, ” recalling it went like this: “'You wanna go out?' 'Yeah, sure. ' Ten months later, we were married. ” Less than one year after they began dating, the couple exchanged vows in Las Vegas.
After Dane announced he was leaving the drama The Last Ship because of a battle with depression, Gayheart took to social media to show her support, captioning a throwback photo, “Way back when I met my Monday man crush. ” When she filed for divorce she cited “irreconcilable differences” and sought spousal support and joint legal and physical custody of their daughters Billie and Georgia.
These details, gathered from the posts and public interviews surrounding Dane’s final weeks, sketch a sequence of private and public moments: the Feb. 19 death at 53 after ALS, the Feb. 21 story posts that revealed personal images, the June public appearance two months after an ALS announcement, and the longstanding legal and familial ties with Rebecca Gayheart and their daughters.
