Photo: YouTube [ Council of Fashion Designers of America]

Richard Buckley passed away at his Los Angeles home on 19 September as the result of a “prolonged illness.”

Buckley had an incredibly successful career that spanned numerous decades after starting out in the late 1970s.

Since then, his work has been featured in the likes of New York Magazine, Vogue and Vanity Fair.

Buckley went on to become the editor in chief of Vogue Hommes International in 1999.

“It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley,” a statement issued to Vogue magazine read. “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.”

Ford met Buckley at a fashion show in 1986 and the two had been together over 30 years when the latter passed away.

“Our eyes locked and within a month we were living together. We have been together ever since,” Ford told People magazine in 2016. “It was literally love at first sight.”

After same-sex marriage was legalised in America, the two tied the knot in 2014.

Two years earlier, they welcomed their first and only son, Alexander John Buckley Ford, via a surrogate.

Buckley lived all over the world throughout his lifetime, being born in Binghamton, New York before growing up in the United States, France and Germany.

He underwent surgery following a lung cancer diagnosis in the 1980s.

Fashion designer Stella McCartney, who is Jack’s godmother, paid tribute to Buckley in a lengthy Instagram post after learning of his death.

“We love you Richard and we will miss you so very much,” she wrote. “Your fight has ended but you will always live on in our hearts.”

 

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