The anguish of Karen Carpenter: New revelations shed light on iconic singer's fatal battle with anorexia and need for mother's love
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Karen Carpenter, one-half of the vocal duo 'The Carpenters', died at the age of 32 in 1983 after her decade-long struggle with anorexia nervosa. As per the autopsy report, her death was caused by "emetine cardiotoxicity due to or as a consequence of anorexia nervosa."
The latest documentary 'Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection', directed by Randy Martin, gives insights into what led Karen to starve herself to death at the prime of her career that she enjoyed with her brother and bandmate Richard Carpenter.
Similarly, Lucy O'Brien's book, 'Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter', published in March 2023, delves deep into her battle with anorexia and her personal life.
Both sources point to Karen's apparently "perfectionist" and "overbearing" mother as a reason behind the singer's lifelong anguish.
Is Karen Carpenter's over-perfectionist mother a reason for her anorexia?
Karen Carpenter was born on March 2, 1950, to Agnes Reuwer and Harold Bertram Carpenter. According to the latest revelations, many close to the Carpenter family point at Karen's mother as an indirect reason for her death, contradicting the initial claims of fame and public scrutiny forcing the singer to avoid food.
Randy Schmidt, a writer and producer on the 'Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection' documentary, recently spoke to Daily Mail about how the singer craved her mother's love and care.
He said, "One of Karen's closest friends told me there was a hole in Karen's heart where the love of a mother should have been, and it couldn't be filled with the love of friends or even by millions of adoring fans around the world, and she ended up almost wanting to disappear – to make herself smaller and smaller."
According to him, Karen's "family did love her in their own way, but Karen needed something else and it's unfortunate that their love for one another was so misaligned."
Her mother apparently often boasted about her elder son Richard as a musical genius. The brother used to tease a chubby teenage Karen calling her "fatso."
Reuwer was supposedly unhappy with her daughter's weight and described Karen as "hefty around the butt." When she was only 17, her mother took her to a doctor, thinking she was overweight.
Subsequently, with a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, Karen lost 25 lbs (11 kg) in six months. This was the beginning of her food aversion.
In her biography of Karen, O'Brien' writes, "That was the start of Karen counting calories daily and exercising. She was determined to stick to it."
She adds, "Food began to be seen as the enemy and I think that's what was bedding down in Karen's psyche."
Schmidt recalled Karen's mother being a perfectionist, saying, "Karen joked that the floor of their garage was so clean you could eat off it. Their mother scrubbed the window fittings on their house with a toothbrush, and when she noticed her neighbors' windows were dirty, she'd go over and clean them as well."
He added, "Karen and Richard learned from a young age to try for perfection in everything. It's not a bad thing if regulated. But as people in the documentary say, perfection is impossible, and you continually disappoint yourself when that's the goal."
According to Maria Luisa Galeazzi, Karen's personal assistant, Reuwer "ruled the roost and Karen could not please her mum. Richard wasn't picked on as much as Karen."
Moreover, Reuwer's partial behavior with Karen and Richard might have been the starting point of her daughter's fall, ultimately leading to the break up of 'The Carpenters'.
Where is Richard Carpenter now?
Despite getting addicted to Quaalude(a hypnotic sedative) and falling into depression after Karen Carpenter's death, the 77-year-old Richard Carpenter has continued his sister's legacy through live performances and releasing new compilations.
He currently lives in Thousand Oaks, California, with his wife, Mary Carpenter, and five children.
In December 2018, he released a new compilation featuring classical renditions of 'The Carpenters' songs in collaboration with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.