Kate Spade’s husband says she had been treated for depression for five years, slams release of suicide note
Andy Spade says he and his designer wife had been living apart, but had not discussed divorce, rejecting claims of her sister
Designer Kate Spade, who committed suicide in New York this week, had been treated for depression and anxiety for five years, her husband said Wednesday.
“She was actively seeking help for depression and anxiety over the last five years, seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety,” her husband Andy Spade said in a statement carried by The New York Times.
It was a blunt rebuke to claims by the designer’s sister that Kate Spade needed mental health care but refused treatment over concerns about potentially hurting the light-hearted brand.
The death of the 55-year-old star designer, whose body was found Wednesday in her Park Avenue apartment, “was not unexpected by me,” Spade’s older sister Reta Saffo told The Kansas City Star from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Andy Spade also used his statement to express disgust that a suicide note, in which his wife reportedly told their daughter not to blame herself. “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,” he said.
Spade - a Missouri native who first worked as a journalist, including a stint as accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine - launched her Kate Spade fashion label in 1993 with her husband Andy and the help of outside investors.