Saffo told The Kansas City Star she’d noticed worrying signs of mental illness even when Kate was young – but the pressure of running her own brand meant her sister began to crack. Kate is pictured (far left) as a young child, posing with her family on the stairs in the 1960s Saffo said the 55-year-old never anticipated how successful her brand would become – and how she, with it, would become a household name: ‘She never expected it – nor was she properly prepared for it.’
‘Just dear – but she was surrounded by YES people, for far too long, therefore she did not receive the proper care for what I believed to be (and tried numerous times to get her help for) bipolar disorder... stemming from her immense celebrity.’ ‘My little sister Katy was a precious, precious little person,’ Saffo told. She added that her sister had been planning to kill herself for a long time before she hanged herself on Tuesday. Her older sister Reta Saffo said Spade struggled to cope with her celebrity status, which only made her suspected bipolar disorder worse. Ask Daddy!’ the note to her daughter Frances Beatrix read.įashion designer Kate Spade’s suicide was ‘not unexpected’ according to her family who say she struggled for years with bipolar disorder – but was too scared to seek help in case it hurt her brand. However, police said he was at the apartment when his wife took her own life Her husband Andy wanted a divorce, sending the popular designer into a deep depression in the days before her suicide because she didn’t want their 24-year marriage to be over, police sources told TMZ.Īndy had moved out into a nearby apartment and multiple magazines earlier claimed the couple were ‘having marital problems’ according to sources close to the couple.įashion designer Kate Spade (pictured with her husband Andy) left behind a tragic note telling her teenage daughter not to blame herself for her suicide” />įashion designer Kate Spade (pictured with her husband Andy) left behind a tragic note telling her teenage daughter not to blame herself for her suicideĪmerican icon: Kate Spade was found dead at the age of 55 in her Park Avenue apartment on Tuesday (Spade above in 2004)
Spade, 55, hanged herself with a scarf in her Park Avenue home in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, leaving the heartbreaking suicide note lying beside her. When Kate Spade told her 13-year-old daughter to ‘ask Daddy’ in her suicide note, it may have been because their marriage breakdown was the reason she decided to end her life. She reentered the fashion world with her new line Frances Valentine in 2015.She sold the remaining shares in her company in 2006 and devoted herself to raising her daughter.Spade shot to fame when her line of purses became the it bag for women in the late 90s and early aughts.We loved Kate dearly and will miss her terribly,’ her family said ‘We are all devastated by today’s tragedy.She was discovered ‘unconscious and unresponsive’ by her housekeeper just after 10am.‘She did not receive the proper care for what I believed to be… bipolar disorder,’ she said.Reta Saffo believes her sister was suffering from bipolar disorder and planned to kill herself for a long time.ĝesigner left a note telling her daughter it was not her fault and told the girl to ‘ask daddy’, reports TMZ.Kate Spade was found dead at the age of 55 in her Park Avenue apartment on Tuesday.By Chris Spargo and Hannah Parry For and Nic White