The day following Kate Spade’s widely publicized suicide, the fashion designer’s husband, Andy Spade broke his silence on the tragic loss of his wife of 24 years.
“Kate was the most beautiful woman in the world,” he told PEOPLE in a statement. “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,” he continued. “We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already.”
Andy, the co-founder of Kate’s original fashion empire and new brand, Frances Valentine, was rumored to be seeking a divorce. Many initially assumed their marital problems or financial issues were behind Kate’s fatal decision.
Though they had been living apart for 10 months, Andy squashed any rumor that they had even discussed divorce, and confirmed that they still did many things together as a family with their 13-year-old daughter, Bea.
“For the past 10 months we had been living separately, but within a few blocks of each other,” said Andy. “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.”
As the media has run wild with assumptions that their pending divorce was behind the iconic designer’s suicide, Andy wanted to set the record straight.
“We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce,” he added. “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.”