Where Is Kate Spade's Daughter Now? She Was Only 13 When Her Mother Took Her Own Life

There was a time when every girl wanted a Kate Spade handbag. They were cool and quirky, and if you were spotted carrying one, then you were cool and quirky too. The fashion designer rose to fame in the 1990s when colorful fashion was all the rage. If you were a working woman, or a young girl cosplaying as one, then you had to have a classic Kate Spade purse.

The brand was founded by Kate and her then-boyfriend Andy Spade in 1993 and became an empire despite the fact that the designer was entirely self-taught, per Vogue. Perhaps it was her lack of training that spawned ideas like putting her label on the outside of the bag. Kate and Andy were married in 1994. They welcomed their daughter 11 years later. Frances Beatrix Spade was only 13 when her mother took her own life. Where is she now? Here's what we know.

Because Frances was just a teenager when her mother died, she was kept out of the public eye. Andy released a statement two days after his estranged wife's death saying his main concern was protecting his daughter's privacy as she dealt with "unimaginable grief," per CBS News. Kate reportedly left behind a note addressed to her daughter in which she asked Frances to not blame herself.

Andy shared a photo of Frances to his Instagram in December 2019, on what would have been Kate's 57th birthday. According to Page Six, the since-deleted post was a picture of a then-14-year-old Frances. The caption read, "I will never forget the love Kate had for our beautiful, bright and charming Frances Bea." He added, "On the date of Katherine Noel Brosnahan Spade's birthdate, I hope that we can all be kind to one another and look for signs of private problems."

Frances was born in 2005 and according to People, in 2006 Kate left the company she founded to focus on her family. "I needed a break and I really wanted to raise my daughter," she told the outlet in 2016. "People asked me, 'Don’t you miss it?' I really didn’t. I mean, I loved what I was doing, but I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I might."

In February 2017 Kate was a guest on the NPR podcast How I Built This alongside Andy. "We had a baby in 2005," Kate explained. "I wanted to leave on good terms, it was the perfect time to leave, I wanted to spend time with my daughter, I’d heard so many horror stories about people who sell and then they stay and then they fight and they sue … so I thought oh, that’s too ugly for me … so it was seamless."

They had a very normal that Kate described to The Cut in 2016. One of the things she did every morning was "nudge" Frances awake every few minutes until the then-12-year-old finally rolled out of bed. The family would reconvene at night for a dinner together, though Kate said Frances was always itching to leave the table. "We want to sit together as a family and talk about our days," said Kate.