Kate Spade battled depression
The visionary fashion designer died of an apparent suicide on Tuesday
Andy Spade, the husband of designer Kate Spade, who died of what police characterised as suicide this week, said that she had suffered from severe depression and acknowledged that they had been living apart for the last 10 months. He said there were no plans to divorce. Andy was speaking publicly for the first time since her death.
Kate, with her husband and business partner, built an idea about a handbag into what became a billion dollar brand.
Andy said that although his wife had suffered from anxiety at points during their relationship and marriage, her serious bouts of depression began only about six years ago, at the age of 49. He also said that she had been regularly seeing a private doctor and was taking medication for her disease. “There was no indication and no warning that she would do this. It was a complete shock. And it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling,” he said.
Andy and Kate, who married 24 years ago and started the brand Kate Spade together in 1993 and the brand Frances Valentine in 2016, had been unofficially separated for just under a year. According to Andy, they maintained different apartments a few blocks from each other but continued to take vacations together, and their daughter, Frances Beatrix, split her time between them.
He also said neither he nor anyone else in the family had been shown the note left by Kate Spade but had read about it in media accounts. “I am appalled that a private message to my daughter has been so heartlessly shared with the media,” Andy Spade said.
According to police sources, the note addressed the couple’s daughter, expressing that she should not feel at fault.