![]() “Karen thought she could beat it by willpower alone,” explains O’Brien, who adds that anorexia became like an addiction for the singer. See Madonna, Jon Bon Jovi, and More of Your Favorite Singers Then and NowĪfter her first collapse, Karen tried different therapies to deal with her anorexia, which was not yet treated as a life-threatening illness by the medical profession. “I think when that marriage failed, that was part of what sent her into a real tailspin.” “He was very good at spending her money, and the marriage was short-lived,” says O’Brien. Turning her attention to her personal life, Karen wed Thomas Burris, a real estate developer, after a whirlwind romance in 1980. “She had invested $400,000 of her own money,” says O’Brien. ![]() There were other heartbreaks: Karen’s solo album, recorded while Richard was on leave, was judged unreleasable by her record company. “But when Karen was struggling with something, she threw herself into her work.” “Karen really should have been taking time off to get herself well, too,” says Chris May, co-author of Carpenters: The Musical Legacy. He took a break from performing in 1979 to address his health. The unyielding schedule also impacted Richard, who began taking Quaaludes to help him sleep and wound up addicted. She was really in the grip of anorexia, and it became more chronic each time she relapsed.” “From then on, it was about periods of recovery. “As the Carpenters became famous, she was more self-conscious,” says O’Brien, who pinpoints 1975, when Karen was hospitalized, as the start of her decline. On top of that, it’s rough to eat well,” said Karen, who after seeing unflattering photos of herself doubled down on dieting. “When you’re on the road, it’s hard to eat. The pressure took a toll on both of them. “We were headlining Vegas a little over a year from when we hit.” “We were an overnight sensation,” says Richard, who was put on whirlwind, near constant tours with Karen. “My proudest accomplishment is ‘Close to You.’” Dionne Warwick previously released a version of this Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic, but it would become the Carpenters’ breakthrough hit in 1970 - and arguably the definitive version of the song.Īfter “Close to You,” everything happened very fast. “I believed in Karen as a singer, myself as an arranger, and the two of us as a sound,” says Richard. They signed their first record contract in 1969. Richard confesses that he knew he and Karen were onto something as the Carpenters. “You could argue that was the beginning of Karen’s obsession with counting calories and watching her weight,” says O’Brien. Agnes Carpenter likely assumed she was helping her 17-year-old daughter when she took her to a diet doctor. “I think Karen felt overlooked at times.”īut not always. “Her mother was very dominant and looked on Richard as the musical genius,” says O’Brien. “She just got it.” But despite Karen’s natural talent, their mother’s highest praise was reserved for Richard, who had shown signs of being a piano prodigy from a very young age. “She learned to play exotic time signatures immediately,” Richard tells Closer. ![]() When Karen asked for a professional drum kit as a teenager, they purchased it for her though females rarely played drums in the 1960s. Their parents tried to be encouraging of their dreams. The smiles were identical, and we liked and disliked the same things - not just music: comedians, movies, just about everything,” revealed Richard in 2021’s Carpenters: The Musical Legacy. Like two sides of the same coin, they shared similar opinions on nearly everything. Karen grew up very close to her brother, Richard, who was slightly more than three years older. Inside Karen Carpenter's Struggle With Anorexia Nervosa
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