Chyler Leigh is opening up about how Eric Dane‘s death has impacted her. The 44-year-old Grey’s Anatomy actress talked about her co-star on a recent episode of the You Might Know Her From podcast.
“Eric had one of the kindest hearts. We had a deep relationship, a respect for one another,” she shared.
Eric passed away in February at the age of 53 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a diagnosis he revealed in 2025. Chyler said he was a “wonderful scene partner” who was “really special” to work with on the show.
“I will always look back fondly as far as that goes, and I’ve watched everything that he was on afterwards, because I just loved the man,” she shared. “But it had been a while since I had connected with him, and then I got the news.”
She was doing press for her Hallmark show The Way Home when her publicist got in touch to tell her about it.
“My publicist called me and said, ‘Hey, I just want you to know, be prepared that Eric passed.’ Because it was going to all come out, I think the next day. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I didn’t know how to comprehend it.’ Then I was on a plane ride from L.A. doing press, flying back to Nashville, that, all of a sudden, it just hit. I had to keep getting up and going to use the lavatory because I was just sobbing,” the Supergirl alum said.