Housekeeper Who Found Kate Spade's Body Is 'Really Shocked to Find Out Her Best Friend Passed'

Kate Spade was found dead in her New York City apartment by a housekeeper on Tuesday.

One day after her sudden death, the son of the housekeeper who discovered the 55-year-old designer’s suicide has spoken out. “My mom was one of the people that found her,” Mark Roldan told Page Six on Wednesday.

“She is a little shaken, especially with trauma such as this. It just really hit our family and I’m pretty sure the Spade family as well. It was just really shocking to find out her best friend Kate Spade and also a big influence in my life just passed,” Roldan, 23, said.

Roldan also detailed how Spade would invite his family to her Napa Valley home.

“She believed in my vision. There would be times we would be in California — you know she brought me to Napa Valley and showed me: ‘This could all be yours if you do the same thing I did. Really push and push and push day in and day out,’ ” he recalled.

A police source confirmed to PEOPLE that Spade was alone in her apartment when she died. The housekeeper had arrived for work that day discovered her body.

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Kate, née Katherine Noel Brosnahan, founded her namesake label with her husband Andy Spade in 1993.

Thanks largely to her colorful handbags, the company rose through the years to billion-dollar prominence even as she sold her ownership stake in 2006. In 2016, she returned from a decade-long fashion hiatus to launch Frances Valentine, named after her daughter Frances Beatrix, now 13.

Spade’s suicide this week rattled the fashion world where she made her name, largely on her eponymous handbags — the cornerstone of an accessories business that eventually grew to billion-dollar prominence.

“Kate was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was the kindest person I’ve ever known and my best friend for 35 years. My daughter and I are devastated by her loss, and can’t even begin to fathom life without her. We are deeply heartbroken and miss her already,” Andy said in a statement to PEOPLE on Wednesday.

The Spade family previously released a statement to the New York Daily News that read: “We are all devastated by today’s tragedy. We loved Kate dearly and will miss her terribly. We would ask that our privacy be respected as we grieve during this very difficult time.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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