Patrick Dempsey believes the late Eric Dane would have been "so happy to know" how much he meant to people

Speaking to News Talk FM, Patrick said: "It's very hard when you lose a family member. I lost my father very young, and my mother has passed.

"And now several friends in the last year I've lost.

"Eric was so beloved, and I think he would really be so happy to know - and I know a lot of people reached out to him before his passing to keep track - that he was so beloved and is deeply missed."

Patrick recently spoke out about Eric's last few weeks before his death, revealing his friend was "starting to lose his ability to speak" as his quality of life had begun to deteriorate "rapidly".

Speaking to Chris Evans on Virgin Radio, Patrick said: "I feel really so sad for his children.

"I was corresponding with him, we were texting, so I spoke to him about a week ago and some friends of ours went in to see him and he was really starting to lose his ability to speak.

"He was bedridden and it was very hard for him to swallow, so the quality of his life was deteriorating so rapidly.

"He was the funniest man - he was such a joy to work with and I want to just remember him in that spirit because any time he was on set, he brought so much fun to it.

"He had a great sense of humour. He was easy to work with, we got along instantly,. First scene was him, you know, in all his glory, coming out of the bathroom with the towel on looking amazing, making you feel completely out of shape and insignificant."

Patrick insisted there was "never really any competition" between himself and Eric on the set of Grey's Anatomy because they "hit it off" from the beginning.

He said: "There was just this wonderful mutual respect. He's wickedly intelligent and I'm always going to remember those moments of fun that we had together and celebrate the joy that he did bring to people's lives and the real loss is for us who don't have them anymore."