The fashion journalist died of natural causes after a prolonged illness, his husband said.
Richard Buckley has died. The fashion journalist and husband to designer Tom Ford died on Sunday, ET confirms. He was 72.
"It is with great sadness that Tom Ford announces the death of his beloved husband of 35 years, Richard Buckley," Ford's rep said in a statement to ET. "Richard passed away peacefully at their home in Los Angeles... with Tom and their son Jack by his side."
The statement added that Buckley, who previously battled throat cancer, "died of natural causes after a prolonged illness."
Buckley's career began in 1979 at New York Magazine. He went on to work at Women’s Wear Daily, Vanity Fair, Mirabella, and Vogue Hommes International.
In a 2011 interview with Out, Ford and Buckley recalled meeting each other at a New York fashion show in 1986. At the time, Buckley was the 38-year-old fashion editor at Women's Wear Daily.
"He was confident and handsome in a way that made him almost unapproachable," said Ford, who was 25 at the time. "His stare was so intense that it completely unnerved me, and when the show was over I literally bolted out the door and down the street to avoid him."
The pair crossed paths again shortly thereafter, and Buckley admitted that he was "babbling on like a schoolgirl" as they rode the elevator together.
"I was shamelessly flirting with this boy," Buckley said. "He, meanwhile, said nothing, and the quieter he was, the sillier I became."
"I decided in that elevator ride that I was going to marry him," Ford said. "He seemed so together. He was so handsome, he was so connected, he was so grown-up, so he was very intimidating. And he really chased me -- not that he had to chase that hard. It excited me but it also scared me, because I knew he was different and that whatever it was I felt with him was very different from what I'd felt before."
From there, the pair was quick to say I love you and move in together. They tied the knot in 2014, and share an 8-year-old son, Alexander Buckley Ford.
"Richard and I are bound together, and I think that's what that recognition is when you look someone in the eyes and you feel like you've known them forever," Ford said. "It is a kind of coming home."
"I couldn't imagine being without Tom now. I couldn't imagine what I'd be like if something happened to him," Buckley said. "There's only one Tom for me. He is still that man who I met 24 years ago, who has a good heart."
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