Fashion editor Richard Buckley, husband to designer Tom Ford, dies at 72

Richard Buckley, a renowned fashion editor and husband to designer Tom Ford, has died “of natural causes after a long illness,” his family confirmed to USA TODAY. He was 72.

“It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley,” read a statement from their family provided by Alexandra Nourafchan, a representative for Ford. “Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles Sunday night with Tom and their son Jack by his side.”

Two years ago, Buckley disclosed to The New York Times that he had surgery for throat cancer in 1989 and had previously battled “more bouts of pneumonia than I can count.”

Ford, 60, and Buckley met in an elevator at a fashion show and fell in love at first sight, the designer told People and Entertainment Weekly in 2016. Their first date was in 1986, Buckley recalled in a 2014 speech.

“Our eyes locked and within a month we were living together,” Ford recalled their first meeting. “We have been together ever since.”

The couple was together for 27 years before they officially married in London in 2014. They have one child, son Alexander “Jack” John Buckley Ford, born in 2012.

Buckley worked his way up in the fashion journalism world, with stints at New York Magazine, Women’s Wear Daily and Vanity Fair before becoming the editor of Vogue Hommes International (the international version of Men’s Vogue).

“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 remarked in 2014.

Previously: Tom Ford says fatherhood made him ‘happier’

And: Designer Tom Ford ties knot with longtime love, Richard Buckley

While presenting his husband with a lifetime achievement award at the CFDA Awards that year, Buckley joked it should be himself receiving the award “for living with him and his career.”

Ford said of his husband in 2016: “If the person you’re with is someone you respect, who you believe has a great heart and a great soul, as good a heart and soul that you will ever find, don’t ever leave them, because you won’t find anyone better.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Richard Buckley, Tom Ford’s husband, fashion editor, dead at 72