Alexander McQueen leaves $82,000 apiece to dogs (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Alexander McQueen, the fashion designer who committed suicide last year at the age of 40, willed $82,000 to each of his three English bull terriers, Juice, Minter, and Callum.

In April last year heard that police found a book at the designer's flat on the back of which he had scribbled: "Look after my dogs, sorry, I love you, Lee."

McQueen left the same amount to each of his two housekeepers, Marlene and Cesar Garcia, for their "long and faithful" service. It was Cesar who found the designer hanged in a wardrobe in his Mayfair flat nearly 18 months ago.

And he left almost $165,000 to both the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and the Blue Cross Animal Welfare Charity, the New York Post reports, while other charities to get a cut of the $26 million he left were the Terrence Higgins Trust, which promotes safe sex, the London Buddhist Center, and his own Sarabande charity.

McQueen, reportedly known as Lee to friends and family, was more generous to his siblings — two brothers and three sisters each received more than $400,000.

He left the remainder of his estate in a trust for his Sarabande charity, which lends its name to his spring/summer 2007 collection famous for including a dress adorned with fresh flowers, on the condition it considers using the money to fund grants for students at Central St Martin's College of Art and Design in London, where he studied fashion.

The was the son of a taxi driver, born in London's East End, McQueen left school at 16, rose to become one of the world's most influential fashion designers.

Kate Middleton wore a dress designed by Sarah Burton for the Alexander McQueen label at her wedding to Prince William on April 29, 2011.

(See a GlobalPost photo gallery of the Royal Wedding here.)

The inquest into his death heard that he "killed himself after struggling with depression, the pressures of his work and his mother's death," Nine MSN reports.

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