Rebecca Gayheart and her daughters are “hanging in there”, seven months after Eric Dane‘s death.
Rebecca Gayheart is focused on her family
The Euphoria actor passed away in February after battling ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and while his 55-year-old widow admitted there have been some “challenging” times with their girls, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14, they are all just doing their best and supporting one another.
Rebecca told People magazine: “You know, we’re hanging in there. I think it’s definitely a challenging season, but we’re doing our best.
“The girls are both in high school – which is also a big transition under any circumstance – so I’m just staying close to my kids.”
The Urban Legend actress is thankful to have a strong support network around her to cope with her grief.
She said: “[I connect with] friends. My children. Being under the same roof with my kids and having them next to me, safe, always makes me feel better. You know, there’s certain people I like to talk to get my feelings out, but really just – again – being connected to other human beings. That’s what gets me through.”
Rebecca feels she and Eric instilled good values in their daughters from childhood.
She recently told E! News: “I think we’ve tried to instil just character and making good decisions, keeping themselves safe, setting boundaries.
“I think they have a pretty good sense of a safe situation and a dangerous situation. And we’ve been doing this since they were little. So, they know.”
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress is trying to set a good example for her daughters by focusing on her work and setting herself a challenge with the musical adaptation of her 1999 dark comedy Jawbreaker.
She said: “I took many years off to be a stay-at-home mom, so now it’s really important for me to do this musical and show my kids that this is, number one, what we do as women. We go back to work. We say yes to things that are scary. And also, we do that even when life is hard.
“I’m not a singer [but] I love doing things out of my comfort zone.”
While she played teenager Jules in the original film – which sees three high school students accidentally kill their friend in a prank gone wrong – Rebecca will play Principal Sherwood in Jawbreaker the musical, and she’s “so excited” about the project, which runs at Los Angeles’ Hudson Backstage Theatre from 4 to 20 September.
She said: “I am so excited because I really believe that this movie needs to be turned into a musical. It’s so campy. It was made to be a musical.
“People are going to be blown away by the music in this. It is unexpected. It’s beautiful. It tells the story in a fresh, new, relevant way without losing the timelessness of it.”
