Tom Ford’s husband Richard Buckley, a fashion editor and journalist, has passed away at age 72 following a long health battle.
The fashion designer’s husband passed away from “natural causes“ on Sunday night at the Los Angeles home he and Ford shared with their 8-year-old son.
Buckley and Ford were married for 35 years.
“It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley,” said Ford in a statement issued to Vogue.
“Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles last night with Tom and their son Jack by his side. He died of natural causes after a prolonged illness.”
It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley. Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles on Sunday night with Tom & their son Jack by his side. He died of natural causes after a prolonged illness. pic.twitter.com/PAL7eCXxC3
— TOM FORD (@TOMFORD) September 21, 2021
Fashion designer and godmother to the couple’s son Stella McCartney, along with Elton John’s husband, David Furnish, were among those who paid tribute to Buckley on social media.
“His intellect and passion for knowledge always blew me away, and the sparkle in his eyes dove so deep into your heart each time you were blessed enough to feel it,” wrote McCartney.
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The former editor-in-chief of Vogue Hommes International met Tom Ford at a fashion show in 1986, and the pair married in 2014 after same-sex marriage was legalised in the US.
“I went to a fashion show and this silver-haired guy was staring at me with these piercing water-blue eyes,” Ford has previously said.
“It scared me because I absolutely saw and knew my entire future.”
Buckley began his journalism career at New York Magazine in 1979 and made his name as an editor for various outlets including Vanity Fair, Mirabella, Vogue Hommes International and Women’s Wear Daily.
He had surgery for throat cancer in 1989 and had previously battled “more bouts of pneumonia than I can count”.
It is unclear what illness the journalist had been battling before his passing.
“As much as people like to think of the fashion world as glamorous, the reality is that every day is another never-ending uphill battle over one thing or another,” he said in 2014.
