Watch: Rebecca Gayheart Talks Summer Plans With Eric Dane
Rebecca Gayheart is setting the record straight about her and Eric Dane‘s marriage.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum shared an update about their relationship one month after she filed to dismiss her 2018 divorce from the Grey’s Anatomy alum, with him signing off on the papers in consent and the Los Angeles court soon closing the case, according to records obtained by E!.
“We are best of friends. We are really close. We are great coparents,” Gayheart—who shares kids Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, with Dane—told E! News’ Francesca Amiker exclusively at a screening of the miniseries The Carters: Hurts To Love You in Los Angeles April 9. “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.”
She continued, “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. 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.”
While the Jawbreaker actress, 53, and Dane, 52, have sparked reconciliation rumors in recent years with family trips with their daughters, speculation that the actress and Euphoria star have gotten back together cooled off this past November when he was spotted out to dinner in Los Angeles with Priya Jain.
In March, two weeks after Gayheart filed to dismiss her divorce from the actor, Jain shared a pic of herself out with him that was taken the previous month, as well as images of matching tattoos, along with the message, “Life lately, The stars aligned just right, i got my first tattoo and im filled with so much love.” She later deleted her Instagram post.
Neither she nor Dane have commented on his relationship status.
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
During Gayheart’s latest interview, the actress also shared insight into the lives of her and Dane’s daughters, who may end up following in their parents’ footsteps to pursue entertainment careers. “My 15-year-old definitely wants to model and act,” she told E!. “They both talk about it, but they’re too young yet.”
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+
Gayheart attended the Carters: Hurts to Love You screening to also support her longtime friend Soleil Moon Frye, who directed the documentary. The project, which focuses on the family of singers Nick Carter and the late Aaron Carter, is set for release on Paramount+ on April 15.
Look back at Eric and Rebecca’s romance…
Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart have never revealed how they first connected, though Dane admitted it’s “probably one of the least interesting stories in the world.”
“It went basically like this: ‘You wanna go out?'” he recalled to Flaunt magazine in 2008. “‘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 TNT drama The Last Ship due to his battle with depression, Gayheart took to Instagram to show her support for her husband.
“Way back when I met my Monday man crush,” Gayheart captioned a throwback photo of the couple.
Gayheart cited “irreconcilable differences” as the cause of the couple’s split and sought spousal support and joint legal and physical custody of their daughters Billie, 13, and Georgia, 11, when she filed for divorce.
“After 14 years together we have decided that ending our marriage is the best decision for our family,” the duo said in a joint statement to E! News at the time. “We will continue our friendship and work as a team to co-parent our two beautiful girls as they are the most important thing in the world to us.”
However, the divorce was never finalized, and Dane revealed that the pair were still friends and “great” co-parents when he told Entertainment Tonight in 2019, “We have two kids. It’s not complicated…it doesn’t have to be.”
Jason Merritt/Getty Images for GLAAD
One decade after the couple made headlines when a nude video with former Miss Teen USA Kari Ann Peniche was published online, Dane addressed the scandal in a rare interview.
“I often think about that answer I gave. And looking back now, was it a mistake? Absolutely not,” he told Glamour of previously describing the incident as a misstep. “Three consenting adults, one of them being my wife? I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
He added that his previous comments were “most likely referring to the drug use that was alluded to in the video.”
“And was that a mistake? Again, I don’t necessarily think I was breaking any laws and corrupting anybody,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum said. “We were just three people taking a bath.”
“I didn’t regret it, I have no regrets nor do I make any apologies for my life experience,” he concluded. “It’s my life experience and I’m at peace with all of it.”
After the tape was published in 2009, the couple was forced to take action, and as a result, Dane and Gayheart filed a $1 million copyright infringement against Gawker Media and reportedly settled for upwards of six-figures.
The pair first sparked rumors of a reconciliation when they jetted off to Europe as a family of four. The Jawbreaker actress shared snaps from the trip showing Dane making a silly face at the camera with their girls.
“This is us,” Gayheart captioned the Instagram post. “Family vacay 2022.”
In a second pic from their European adventures, the foursome posed together with big smiles on the Parisian streets, as she wrote on the ‘gram, “A pit stop in Paris!”
The group then made their way across the coast to St. Tropez, with Gayheart documenting their journey on her Instagram Stories. “My people,” she captioned a snap of the fam with a friend.
While she filed for divorce in 2018, Dane and Gayheart kicked off the New Year as one big family.
The Euphoria actor and the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum were photographed walking hand-in-hand off a boat together during a vacation with their two daughters.
Instagram / Rebecca Gayheart
Rebecca filed to dismiss her divorce petition, seven years after submitting the papers.
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