Richard Buckley, Fashion Editor and Husband to Tom Ford, Dead at 72

Richard Buckley, a renowned fashion editor and journalist, has died. Buckley passed away at the Los Angeles home he shared with Tom Ford, his husband and partner of over three decades, on Sunday, Sept. 19 after battling prolonged illness, Ford's representatives confirmed in a statement. He was 72.

In the statement, Ford's representatives said Ford announced "with great sadness... the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley," according to PEOPLE. The statement added that Buckley "passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles." He was surrounded by Ford and their 8-year-old son Jack at the time of his passing. According to the statement, Buckley "died of natural causes after a long illness." Further details regarding his passing have not been released at this time.

Born in Binghamton, New York, Buckley attended the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany, Vogue reported. His career in fashion journalism began in 1979 at New York Magazine, with Buckley later going on to work for publications that included Women's Wear Daily and Vanity Fair. He also became the European editor of Mirabella magazine, and in 1999, he was named editor in chief of Vogue Hommes International. Buckley also served as contributing editor at Italian Vogue.

It was amid his surging career as a fashion journalist that he met Ford in 1986 at a fashion show. Reflecting on that first meeting in a 2016 appearance on The Jess Cagle Interview, Ford said, "our eyes locked and within a month we were living together. We have been together ever since." Ford said he and Buckley were riding an elevator together in New York, and that "by the time that elevator landed on the ground floor I thought, 'You're the one.' That's it. Click. Sold.' It was literally love at first sight."

"I went to a fashion show and this silver-haired guy was staring at me with these piercing water-blue eyes. It scared me because I absolutely saw and knew my entire future," he added, MSN reported. "We had three dates. We were living together four weeks later. He gave me the keys to his apartment, and we have lived together ever since."

Ford and Buckley went on to tie the knot in 2014. In a statement to MailOnline at the time, Ford said, "I know that was just made legal in the UK, which is great. We were married in the States." They are parents to son Alexander John Buckley Ford, 8.