Rebecca Gayheart has revealed her late husband Eric Dane became "visibly emotional" hearing his AI-created synthetic voice before he died.
The Grey's Anatomy actor passed away on 19 February at the age of 53 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly takes away a person's ability to walk, talk, eat and eventually breathe.
His widow revealed to Variety on Wednesday that the Euphoria actor worked with AI firm ElevenLabs on a voice restoration project in the final weeks of his life, and they created a synthetic voice using his past recordings.
Recalling the moment they heard his restored voice, the actress said, "He was waiting anxiously to hear it, and when we got it from ElevenLabs it was a really big moment. It was a powerful moment. We played it, and Eric became visibly emotional. And when I heard it, I cried. I think everyone in the room did."
A few days after Dane got his voice system, they played it for their daughters Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
"They were like, that's not a recording. That's your voice. That's you. So it was spot on. He just had this way of speaking, and they captured it so beautifully," she recalled, adding that they "signed off on it".
"We were all really struggling with the voice loss that he was already experiencing. Knowing we had that in our back pocket, just felt really good," she continued. "I'm sad, and I know Eric is too, that we didn't ever get to really use it. But what I do know is that he would want as many people as possible to have access (to the technology)."
The Urban Legend actress is speaking out in support of ElevenLabs, which has pledged to provide a lifetime software license and support services for free to 1 million people who suffer from diseases like ALS, motor neurone disease and cerebral palsy.
The couple separated in 2018 after 14 years of marriage, however, Gayheart remained a key caregiver for Dane after he was diagnosed with ALS in April 2025.
Gayheart admitted that the family is "still in a state of shock" and she is "having trouble receiving" all of the love and support "coming at me from every which way".
"I just want to thank everybody for being so kind to us during the last couple of years. It's been challenging and meaningful, and people are kind," she added.
