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Kate Spade’s best friend has opened up about the beloved fashion designer seven years after her shocking suicide.
In her upcoming memoir, “We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship With Kate Spade,” Elyce Arons claims that Kate and her husband, Andy Spade, were “trying to work things out” when she took her own life in her Manhattan apartment in 2018.
“They were trying to work things out – and they were always in each other’s lives every day,” Arons, 62, wrote in a preview of the new book obtained by People on Tuesday. “They loved each other.”
Kate and Andy married in 1994. They welcomed their daughter, Frances Beatrix Spade, now 20, in 2005.
However, in a statement released shortly after his wife’s death on June 5, 2018, at the age of 55, Andy revealed that he and Kate had been living apart for 10 months before her tragic suicide.
“We were not legally separated, and never even discussed divorce,” he shared at the time. “We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how.”
“We were together for 35 years,” Andy, 63, added. “We loved each other very much and simply needed a break.”
He also revealed that the late fashion designer “suffered from depression and anxiety for many years” before her passing and was “actively seeking help” at the time of her death.
“She was actively seeking help and working closely with doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives,” he continued seven years ago. “We were in touch with her the night before and she sounded happy.”
“There was no indication and no warning that she would do this,” Andy added. “It was a complete shock and it clearly wasn’t her. There were personal demons she was battling.”
Elsewhere in her new memoir, Arons wrote that Kate was “such a private person” and “people didn’t really know her” despite the successful Kate Spade New York handbag line she created in the 1990s.
“So many people remember Katy for how she left us, and not about her life,” Arons penned. “She was such a private person in so many ways – that people didn’t really know her.”
“She never shared with me that she was diagnosed with anything. I think it’s stigma-related,” Arons continued. “And because she was private, she probably felt that even more so. She would just use the word sad.”
Arons, who co-founded the popular accessories and clothing line Frances Valentine alongside Kate in 2016, has also announced a new special edition tote bag to support the Hope for Depression Research Foundation.
“I love the organization because they are working on research and getting a diagnosis,” she said. “I think bringing it to light is helpful instead of hiding it.”
As for how Arons feels seven years after her best friend’s passing, she admits that she has “made peace” with Kate’s “incomprehensible choice.”
“All of us who loved her have had to find a way to make peace with her incomprehensible choice,” she wrote toward the end of the book. “It’s not been easy.”
“I’ve learned to never take the people whom I care about for granted,” she continued. “As I tell my closest friends: go to your sister or your best girlfriends who’s just like a sister to you. Go to her today and hug her so hard that it’s like you won’t ever let her go.”
“We Might Just Make It After All: My Best Friendship With Kate Spade” hits bookshelves on June 17.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.