Kate Spade & David Spade: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Kate Spade, the prominent fashion designer known for her handbags, has tragically committed suicide. Her last name has a lot of people wondering: Was Kate Spade related to the actor David Spade?

The answer is yes. Kate Spade was related to David Spade. However, the designer and star were related only through marriage. David Spade is the brother of Kate Spade’s husband, Andy Spade. All three – Kate, David, and Andy Spade – attended Arizona State University. Back then, her name was Katherine Noel Brosnahan.

The fact that Kate had committed suicide at only age 55 broke on June 5, 2018 with word that she hanged herself with a scarf in her Manhattan apartment. Before her death, Kate Spade built a fashion empire. Coach purchased her handbag company for more than $2 billion in 2017, and her own net worth was estimated at around $200 million.

David Spade posted this photo and message after news of Kate’s death broke:

Here’s what you need to know:

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1. Kate Spade Met David Spade’s Brother in College

Kate Spade married her husband Andy Spade in 2004. Page Six is reporting that Kate Spade was agonized in the end over relationship problems. TMZ alleges that Andy Spade had told Kate he wanted a divorce and moved to an apartment, but she didn’t want the divorce. Furthermore, one of her sisters has opened up about her bipolar disorder, saying that Kate refused to get help for her mental health issues because she didn’t want to harm her brand. The sister also said that Kate seemed fixated on Robin Williams’ death by suicide.

“My little sister Katy was a precious, precious little person,” Reta Saffo told DailyMail.com. “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.”

In a statement he gave to The New York Times, Andy Spade revealed the couple was living separately and said Kate had sought help for depression and anxiety. “We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already,” he wrote of himself and the couple’s daughter Bea.

Kate’s husband was very involved in all of the couple’s brands; they started the Kate Spade line together. Both Spades sold their stake in the Kate Spade company in 2006. They “launched a new venture, selling handbags and shoes, called Frances Valentine in 2016,” Newsweek reports.

The New York Times reports that Kate Spade’s husband was at the scene when the housekeeper called 911 to report Kate’s suicide. Andy Spade once worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency when the couple got their start.

According to TMZ, “She and Andy met while attending Arizona State University and working at a clothing store. Together, they launched Kate Spade Handbags in 1993, and it blossomed into a full-scale clothing and jewelry line. Kate and Andy got married in 1994.” Before launching the handbag line, Kate Spade worked as a fashion editor for Mademoiselle Magazine in New York following her college graduation.

She once worked in a motorcyle bar that Andy Spade would frequent, according to The New York Times. The couple created many new ventures together; among them: Kate Spade created a television network with her husband that “broadcasts in the elite vacation spots of the Hamptons, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard,” according to Celebrity Net Worth.

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2. David Spade Has Two Brothers & Grew Up in Arizona

Andy Spade is not David Spade’s only brother. He also has a brother named Bryan Spade. David Spade, a comedian, is best known for his time on Saturday Night Live and appearances in movies like Joe Dirt.

According to IMDB, “David Spade was born on July 22, 1964, in Birmingham, Michigan, the youngest of three brothers. He is the son of Judith J. (Meek), a writer and editor, and Wayne M. Spade, a sales rep, and is of German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent.”

IMDB reported that David Spade was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, though, and he graduated from Arizona State University in 1986 with a business degree – the same university where his brother Andy met Kate. Kate Spade was raised in Kansas City, Missouri in a family involved in the construction trade.

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3. The Spade Brothers Were Raised by a Single Mother Who Is a Secretary

David Spade opened up about his family to Esquire Magazine, which reported that their “mother raised three kids alone while working as a secretary and in a department store. All three turned out to be successful.” Bryan Spade, the oldest brother, is in construction, the magazine reported.

Esquire asked David Spade about the Kate Spade brand in that interview, but he spoke about his difficult childhood in response. He also spoke candidly about his childhood, saying, “People would give my mom sh*t for being away from us all the time. They would say that it wasn’t the way you should be as a mother. But it’s either that or a foster home,” he said. “When you don’t have money and there are three kids, sometimes you have to leave the kids with the neighbors all day. Then the neighbor runs away for two hours to run errands because they’re not her kids. You’re left in the desert.”

As for the brothers’ father, Sammy, David Spade told Esquire, “He’s had a great life. I bought him a condo, I got him a car, he gets Kate Spade stuff from Andy, he used to get whatever he wanted. He’s been covered.”

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4. Kate & Spade Left Behind a Young Daughter

Kate Spade’s daughter with husband Andy Spade was born in 2005. Her daughter’s name is Frances Beatrix Spade.

According to Moneyish, Kate took “a near-decade long hiatus to raise her daughter,” before staging her comeback with the Frances Valentine brand that bears her daughter’s first name. She told the site she wouldn’t trade the time with her daughter in a “million years.”

The 2017 article reported that Frances, then 12, would sometimes ask “why there are shoes with her mom’s name in them.” The couple’s new brand, Frances Valentine, focuses on selling shoes, although it also sells some of the handbags that made the couple famous.

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5. Kate Spade’s Niece Is Also a Well-Known Actress

Kate had another famous relative. Her niece is Rachel Brosnahan, who starred in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and on House of Cards.

“…I do know that one of Aunt Katie’s influences was my fabulous grandmother, June, who always had a closet full of amazing shoes and scarves and handbags,” Rachel told The Los Angeles Times.