Kate Spade's husband releases official statement on designer's suicide: 'She was seeking help for years'

It had been reported that Kate Spade, iconic fashion designer known for her sleek handbags, was found dead in her Park Avenue apartment on 5 June of an apparent suicide. She was 55. Kate Spade was married to Andy Spade who co-founded the fashion brand Kate Spade New York with her. It had been reported that the fashion designer fell into deep depression days before hanging herself because her husband moved out of their home had sought a divorce. [caption id=“attachment_4501297” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Kate Spade with husband Andy Spade/Image from Twitter.[/caption] Now, Kate Spade’s husband has released his full statement about his wife’s shocking suicide. The note, as published by Harper’s Bazaar, reads the following:

Kate was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was the kindest person I’ve ever known and my best friend for 35 years. My daughter and I are devastated by her loss, and can’t even begin to fathom life without her. We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already. Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives. We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy. 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. For the past 10 months we had been living separately, but within a few blocks of each other. Bea was living with both of us and we saw each other or spoke every day. We ate many meals together as a family and continued to vacation together as a family. Our daughter was our priority. We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce. We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how. We were together for 35 years. We loved each other very much and simply needed a break. This is the truth. Anything else that is out there right now is false. She was actively seeking help for depression and anxiety over the last 5 years, seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety. There was no substance or alcohol abuse. There were no business problems. We loved creating our businesses together. We were co-parenting our beautiful daughter. I have yet to see any note left behind and am appalled that a private message to my daughter has been so heartlessly shared with the media. My main concern is Bea and protecting her privacy as she deals with the unimaginable grief of losing her mother. Kate loved Bea so very much.

Kate Spade was born Katherine Brosnahan and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She was working as an accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine when she launched her company with husband Andy in their New York apartment in 1993. She started the company based on six shapes of bags that she thought every working woman needed. It was an instant hit. She walked away from the company in 2007, a year after it was acquired from the Neiman Marcus Group for $125 million (then known as Liz Claiborne Inc.). Coach, now known as Tapestry, bought the Kate Spade brand last year for $2.4 billion, seeking to broaden its appeal. Meanwhile, Spade and her husband — brother of comedian David Spade — started a new handbag company a few years ago, Frances Valentine. And she changed her name to Katherine Noel Frances Valentine Brosnahan Spade.