News broke this morning that designer Kate Spade killed herself.
New information as to why she killed herself has been made available as it has been revealed that she fell into a deep depression days before she committed suicide because her husband Andy wanted a divorce.
According to TMZ , the couple were living separate lives, and Andy had moved into a separate apartment after 24 years of marriage.
Andy was however in the apartment when Kate , 55, hanged herself with a
The designer left behind a heartbreaking suicide note to her daughter Frances Beatrix, 13, which read: ‘Bea – I have always loved you. This is not your fault. Ask Daddy!’
Andy was seen with the couple’s daughter on Tuesday at the girl’s school, with a source telling DailyMail.com that he arrived with a police officer to get his daughter and tell her the news.
CKate’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.
Her older sister Reta Saffo said Kate struggled to cope with her celebrity status, which only made her suspected bipolar disorder worse.
‘My little sister Katy was a precious, precious little person,’ Saffo told DailyMail.com. ‘Genuine in almost every way.
‘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.’
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.’
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.
‘She was always a very excitable little girl,’ she said adding that ‘this was not unexpected by me’.
‘I felt all the stress/pressure of her brand (KS) may have flipped the switch where she eventually became full-on manic depressive…’
The heartbroken sister said Kate would self-medicate her suspected bipolar disorder with alcohol, because she was too scared to seek professional help in case it damaged the brand.
‘Unfortunately, untreated, it finally took its toll on her,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘A very tragic and sad ending to the life of a very colorful and delightful being.’
Saffo said she was aware of her sister’s battle with mental illness, but it wasn’t until comedian Robin Williams killed himself in August 2014, that Saffo began to realize Kate’s obsession with suicide and her unraveling mental health.
She described how they were together at a hotel in Santa Fe when news broke of his death. And while she says they were both shocked and saddened, Kate seemed unable to tear herself away from the footage.
‘She kept watching it and watching it over and over,’ she said. ‘I think the plan was already in motion even as far back as then.’
Increasingly concerned about her mental state, Saffo says that she and Andy repeatedly urged her to go for treatment, including to the same treatment program where Catherine Zeta-Jones went for her successful bipolar treatment.
But she’d always ‘chickened out’ at the last moment.
‘We’d get sooo close to packing her bags, but — in the end, the ‘image’ of her brand (happy-go-lucky Kate Spade) was more important for her to keep up. She was definitely worried about what people would say if they found out.’
In the end, she said, Kate’s death was heartbreaking but ‘not unexpected’.
‘Sometimes you simply cannot SAVE people from themselves!’ said Saffo.
‘One of the last things she said to me was, ‘Reta, I know you hate funerals and don’t attend them, but for me would you PLEASE come to MINE, at least. Please!’ I know she perhaps had a plan, but she insisted she did not.’
Dailymail
