Kate Spade was experiencing marital problems before her suicide, multiple sources tell Us Weekly, and recently separated from husband Andy Spade.
Another source adds that the pair were working together on Frances Valentine, but that there were difficulties with the brand’s creative direction and finances.
The 55-year-old designer died from an apparent suicide on Tuesday, June 5. She hung herself with a red scarf in her New York City apartment, a law enforcement source told Us, and was found by a housekeeper around 10:20 a.m. ET.
Kate and Andy, 55, spoke about working together after 30 years of marriage during an April 2017 sit-down with BUILD Series. “I do all the work now,” he told the interviewer at the time.
“OK, that is such a joke,” Kate replied, laughing.
“This is the beauty of being together 30 years,” added Andy, who is the brother of actor David Spade.
He then described how the couple’s work dynamic shifted as time passed: “I think the change is that we really manage our time better, so we have our time to be home with our daughter and then we have our time to kind of go to the office and do our work. … We worked day and night for the first 20 years at Kate Spade, so now we kind of try to have a life at the same time.”
Kate and Andy married in 1994, one year after launching Kate Spade New York together.
The late Frances Valentine designer also talked about taking time off from work after welcoming the pair’s daughter, Frances, now 13: “When the two of us sold the company with our other two partners to Neiman Marcus, it was kind of a time for us to take a break. So we sold Kate Spade and I personally, I don’t know about Andy, I took off a good nine years raising my daughter and absolutely adored every moment of it. And then I realized she was becoming 12 and didn’t want me around so much, so I thought I would get back into the business.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
