Kate Spade Took 10-Year Hiatus From Fashion to Focus on Daughter

Kate Spade took a 10-year hiatus from the fashion industry to focus on raising her daughter, before reportedly taking her own life.

The highly-respected fashion designer first founded her brand in 1993, later stepping away in 2007 so that she could spend her time being a full-time mother.

“I needed a break and I really wanted to raise my daughter. People asked me, ‘Don’t you miss it?’ I really didn’t,” Spade told PEOPLE back in 2016. “I mean, I loved what I was doing, but I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I might.”

“We had a baby in 2005 … I wanted to leave on good terms, it was the perfect time to leave, I wanted to spend time with my daughter, I’d heard so many horror stories about people who sell and then they stay and then they fight and they sue,” Spade said in a February 2017 podcast interview, elaborating on her decision. “So I thought oh, that’s too ugly for me. .. so it was seamless. It was a very quiet exit.”

In a 2016 interview with The Cut, Spade opened up about what her daily life was like after leaving her fashion empire, explaining that family life was decidedly different, especially when you have a child to wake up.

“My husband, Andy, runs to Starbucks because he doesn’t want any part of that banter,” Spade detailed. “I’m in my daughter’s room going, ‘Oh my god, I asked you 20 minutes ago and you’re still in your pajamas.’ It’s a little mini battle. She’s jealous of our dog because he doesn’t have to do anything.”

Spade’s husband Andy is the brother of former Saturday Night Live actor David Spade, and the fashion guru went on to explain that the family’s evenings were spent engaging one another in quality time.

“It’s a thing that Andy and I decided to do when she was little,” Spade said. “When she got older and she had all these activities, it became a little more difficult, but I still made it a point to have our dining-room table set, just so she knows that there’s structure. We want to sit together as a family and talk about our days.”

“Being a mother adds an enormous amount of stress to your life. You need to make sure you’re there for everything,” Spade went on to say. “We don’t have other people to do it for us — I want to make sure I’m there. When you’re trying to be a parent and a businessperson at the same time, that is the most stressful thing you could do.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).