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Spade killed herself ‘after she fell into a depression when her husband demanded a divorce and moved out to a nearby apartment – as she begged him not to abandon their 24-year marriage’

Kate Spade fell into a deep depression days before she committed suicide because her husband Andy wanted a divorce and she didn’t want their 24-year marriage to be over, police sources said.

Andy had moved into a nearby apartment, according to TMZ, and multiple magazines earlier claimed the couple were ‘having marital problems’.

Spade, 55, hanged herself with a scarf in her Park Avenue home in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, leaving a heartbreaking suicide note to her daughter Frances Beatrix lying beside her.

The note read ‘Bea – I have always loved you. This is not your fault. Ask Daddy!’ which may have been because their marriage breakdown was the reason she decided to end her life.

However, police said he was at the apartment when his wife took her own life.

Spade’s suicide was ‘not unexpected’ according to her family who say she struggled for years with bipolar disorder – but was too scared to seek help in case it hurt her brand.

Her older sister Reta Saffo said Spade struggled to cope with her celebrity status, which only made her suspected bipolar disorder worse. She added that her sister had been planning to kill herself for a long time before she hanged herself on Tuesday.

‘My little sister Katy was a precious, precious little person,’ Saffo said ‘Genuine in almost every way.

‘Just dear – but she was surrounded by YES people, for far too long, therefore she did not receive the proper care for what I believed to be (and tried numerous times to get her help for) bipolar disorder… stemming from her immense celebrity.’

Saffo said the 55-year-old never anticipated how successful her brand would become – and how she, with it, would become a household name: ‘She never expected it – nor was she properly prepared for it.’

Saffo said she’d noticed worrying signs of mental illness even when Kate was young – but the pressure of running her own brand meant her sister began to crack.

‘She was always a very excitable little girl,’ she said adding that ‘this was not unexpected by me’.

‘I felt all the stress/pressure of her brand (KS) may have flipped the switch where she eventually became full-on manic depressive…’

The heartbroken sister said Spade would self-medicate her suspected bipolar disorder with alcohol, because she was too scared to seek professional help in case it damaged the brand.

‘Unfortunately, untreated, it finally took its toll on her,’ she said. ‘A very tragic and sad ending to the life of a very colorful and delightful being.’

Saffo said she was aware of her sister’s battle with mental illness, but it wasn’t until comedian Robin Williams killed himself in August 2014, that Saffo began to realize Kate’s obsession with suicide and her unraveling mental health.

She described how they were together at a hotel in Santa Fe when news broke of his death. And while she says they were both shocked and saddened, Kate seemed unable to tear herself away from the footage.

‘She kept watching it and watching it over and over,’ she said. ‘I think the plan was already in motion even as far back as then.’