Kate Spade’s husband has said she suffered from depression and anxiety for many years before she died in an apparent suicide.

Andy Spade rejected suggestions she was abusing drugs or alcohol, or had been dealing with business problems.

The American fashion designer was seeking help during the last five years, ”seeing a doctor on a regular basis and taking medication for both depression and anxiety,” Mr Spade, who was also his wife’s business partner, said in a statement.

He said there were “personal demons she was battling.”

Ms Spade was found in the bedroom of her Park Avenue apartment on Tuesday. She was 55 years old and had a 13-year old daughter.

Kate Spade: American fashion designer Show all 12 1 /12 Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade poses with handbags and shoes from her 2004 next collection in New York. AP Kate Spade: American fashion designer Designer Kate Spade inside her New York flagship store on May 28, 1996. Rex Features Kate Spade: American fashion designer A view of backstage at the Kate Spade presentation during New York Fashion Week: The Shows on February 9, 2018. Getty/New York Fashion Week: The Shows Kate Spade: American fashion designer Andy Spade and Kate Spade at Karlie Kloss and Warby Parker Collaboration launch dinner, Fleurs Bella, New York in 2014. Rex Features Kate Spade: American fashion designer A model poses at the Kate Spade New York fall 2012 presentation during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Getty Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade New York "Housewarming" in celebration of the brand's home pop-up shop at Kate Spade New York Home Pop-Up Shop on March 22, 2016. Getty/Kate Spade New York Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade leaving The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala in 2007 in New York City. Getty Images North America Kate Spade: American fashion designer Designer Kate Spade at an event with handbags of her own design in New York, 1998. Rex Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade and Jack Spade Spring Accessory Collection Breakfast at the Kate Spade flagship store, September 14, 2006 in New York City. Getty Images Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade and Michael Kors pose at the CFDA hosted viewing of MOMA's "Fashioning Fiction in Photography Since 1990" April 22, 2004 in Queens, New York. Getty Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade with a handbag of her own design in 1998 in New York. Rex Features Kate Spade: American fashion designer Kate Spade arrives at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in New York on June 2, 2003. Reuters

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

Mr Spade said she “sounded happy” the night before her suicide.

“There was no indication and no warning that she would do this,” he said. “It was a complete shock.”

He said he and his wife 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.

Coach, now known as Tapestry, bought the Kate Spade brand last year for $2.4bn (£1.8bn). The couple recently had started a new handbag company, Frances Valentine.

“We were best friends trying to work through our problems in the best way we knew how,” Mr Spade said.

Ms Spade’s sister claimed she felt pressure to maintain her “happy-go-lucky” image matching her famous brand, which prevented her from seeking help with mental health issues.

If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: mind.org.uk, beateatingdisorders.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk, samaritans.org