Chyler Leigh is keeping Eric Dane‘s memory close, months after losing her beloved co-star and friend. The former “Grey’s Anatomy” star recently opened up about her longtime friendship with Dane, who portrayed Mark Sloan opposite her fan-favorite character Lexie Grey.
While Leigh looks back on their years together with gratitude, she admits there is one moment she still wishes had gone differently.
Speaking with TV Insider, the Hallmark star, beloved by fans for her role as Katherine “Kat” Landry on “The Way Home,” revealed that she remains “really bummed about” missing one precious opportunity to reunite with Dane.
COVID Restrictions Kept the Former Co-Stars Apart
GettyLeigh shared that she was supposed to reunite with Dane in person during their memorable return to “Grey’s Anatomy” in season 17.
The emotional storyline featured Meredith Grey, played by Ellen Pompeo, imagining a peaceful beach reunion with Lexie and Mark while battling COVID-19.
Although viewers saw the beloved characters together onscreen, the actors were never actually in the same place during filming.
“We were filming all during Covid — actual Covid — and I was filming Supergirl in Vancouver,” Leigh explained. “I couldn’t go down to be there because I would have had to quarantine [for] two weeks coming back into Vancouver.”
Because of the travel restrictions in place at the time, Leigh filmed her scenes separately using a green screen. “If there’s anything that I regret, it would be not having been able to do that,” Leigh shared.
Mark and Lexie’s Reunion Remains a Fan-Favorite Memory
For longtime viewers, the beach sequence provided a long-awaited reunion for one of the show’s most beloved couples.
Years earlier, Mark and Lexie’s love story ended in heartbreak after the devastating plane crash that changed the course of the series. Lexie died in the aftermath of the accident, while Mark later succumbed to his injuries.
Their return in Meredith’s dreamlike vision offered fans a sense of closure. When Meredith asked whether they were finally together, Mark responded, “On your beach, it looks like we are.”
Leigh also reflected on one of her favorite scenes with Dane from the complicated Mark-Lexie-Jackson Avery love triangle.
“There’s one scene where Lexie is kind of choosing between Jackson and Mark and he comes in and he just gives her this moment where you see Jackson in the background and she really does have to choose,” Leigh recalled in the same interview.
“I don’t know what it is about kissing, but it was a really deep moment. And you just kind of see the sparkle leave her eyes, you know? That was so up and down.”
She added, “I could pick a million [memories]. He was a wonderful human being.”
Leigh Continues to Cherish Her Time With Dane
GettyDane died on February 19 at age 53 following a battle with ALS. The actor had publicly shared his diagnosis in 2025, and tributes quickly poured in from colleagues and friends across Hollywood.
Last month, Leigh spoke candidly about learning of his death while promoting her Hallmark Channel series “The Way Home.”
“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,” she recalled on an episode of the “You Might Know Her From podcast“.
“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.”
While the loss still hurts, Leigh said she is finding comfort in the memories they created together. “I can kind of be able to see past the absolute devastation of it, and then be able to appreciate even more so those incredible moments that we had together,” she said.
