Kate Spade's husband says she suffered from depression

NEW YORK — The husband and business partner of designer Kate Spade, who died in an apparent suicide, said she suffered from depression and anxiety for many years.

She was actively seeking help during the last five years, "seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety," Andy Spade said in a statement released Wednesday.

The designer was found hanged in the bedroom of her Park Avenue apartment Tuesday morning. She was 55 and had a 13-year-old daughter.

Spade was working as an accessories editor at Mademoiselle magazine when she launched her company with her husband in their New York apartment in 1993.

NEW YORK - MAY 4 Kate Spade and Andy Spade attend the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Annual Downtown Dinner at Cipriani 55 Wall Street May 4, 2006 in New York. (Photo Donald Bowers/Getty for Company Agenda)

"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 Spade said. "It was a complete shock."

Her husband said they had been living separately for the past 10 months but saw each other or spoke every day. He said they were not legally separated and never discussed divorce.

"We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how," he said.