Kate Spade Suicide: Police Say Top Designer Hanged Herself; Kay Warren Blasts Media for Insensitivity
Kay Warren, co-founder of Saddleback Church and wife of Rick Warren, lashed out on Tuesday at media coverage surrounding the apparent suicide of Kate Spade, the top designer behind the signature handbags.
"The more I read some of the media coverage around Kate Spade's death the angrier I become. We, the public, don't have the right to know every graphic detail. She has a family — a vulnerable, shocked, traumatized child. Please think of her when you write," Warren posted on Twitter.
Earlier, the California megachurch co-founder stated: "My heart aches for the pain & suffering Kate Spade must have been experiencing, as well as for the pain & suffering those who love her will now experience. Never forget every one of us is wounded in some way; let's treat each other with tenderness."
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Spade, 55, was found dead by police in her New York City apartmented on Tuesday morning.
Police officials said that Spade, the handbag designer behind the major Kate Spade New York company, which was launched in 1993, apparently hanged herself in her Upper East Side home in Manhattan.
Spade and her husband, Andy, sold their stakes in the brand back in 2006 in order to raise their daughter, Frances Beatrix Spade.
Kate Spade New York said in a statement that the news is "incredibly sad."
"Although Kate has not been affiliated with the brand for more than a decade, she and her husband and creative partner, Andy, were the founders of our beloved brand. Kate will be dearly missed."
The Council of Fashion Designers of America commented that Spade was "a great talent who had an immeasurable impact on American fashion and the way the world viewed American accessories."
The New York City chief medical examiner's office said that the fashion designer's death is under investigation, though a multitude of websites have been speculating about mental health issues she might have been suffering from.
People reported that Spade's older sister, Reta Brosnahan Saffo, claimed that the designer suffered from mental health illness for years, and that the suicide "was not unexpected."
An unnamed source close to the family claimed that Saffo had been estranged from her sister, however, and said that Spade was a "kind, generous, funny, warm and extremely private person."
Warren became an advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention after her son, Matthew, took his own life back in 2013 following a long battle with mental illness.
Writing about the five-year anniversary of Matthew's death back in April, Warren posted on Facebook that hundreds of anguished people keep asking her how to cope with mental illness and fears of suicide surrounding their own loved ones.
She urged parents to pray fervently to God, and to keep their heart open "so that your son or daughter never has to wonder what God is really like."
"Yes, it will hurt you more NOW. But if something should ever happen, you will know without a shadow of a doubt that you never withheld your heart from him," she advised.
