One day after hersudden death, the son of the housekeeper who discovered the 55-year-old designer’s suicide has spoken out. “My mom was one of the people that found her,” Mark Roldan toldPage Sixon Wednesday.
“She is a little shaken, especially with trauma such as this. It just really hit our family and I’m pretty sure the Spade family as well. It was just really shocking to find out her best friend Kate Spade and also a big influence in my life just passed,” Roldan, 23, said.
Roldan also detailed how Spade would invite his family to her Napa Valley home.
“She believed in my vision. There would be times we would be in California — you know she brought me to Napa Valley and showed me: ‘This could all be yours if you do the same thing I did. Really push and push and push day in and day out,’ ” he recalled.
A police source confirmed to PEOPLE that Spade wasalone in her apartmentwhen she died. The housekeeper had arrived for work that day discovered her body.
OE SCHILDHORN/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Kate, née Katherine Noel Brosnahan, founded her namesake label with her husband Andy Spade in 1993.
Thanks largely to her colorful handbags, the companyrose through the years to billion-dollar prominenceeven as she sold her ownership stake in 2006. In 2016, she returned from a decade-long fashion hiatus to launchFrances Valentine, named after her daughter Frances Beatrix, now 13.
RELATED VIDEO: Kate Spade, 55, Found Dead in N.Y.C. Apartment from Apparent Suicide
Spade’s suicide this weekrattled the fashion worldwhere she made her name,largely on her eponymous handbags— the cornerstone of an accessories business that eventually grew to billion-dollar prominence.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
source: people.com
